Ross Taylor, a former New Zealand player, said in his most recent book, “Ross Taylor: Black & White,” that he received a smack to the face from a Rajasthan Royals owner after being dismissed for a duck in an IPL game in Mohali against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
“Rajasthan played Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. The chase was 195, I was lbw for a duck and we didn’t get close. Afterward, the team, support staff, and management were in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. Liz Hurley was there with Warnie. One of the Royals owners said to me, “Ross, we didn’t pay you a million dollars to get a duck” and slapped me across the face three or four times. He was laughing and they weren’t hard slaps but I’m not sure that it was entirely play-acting,” Taylor mentioned this in the book.
He said, “Under the circumstances, I wasn’t going to raise a stink about it, but I couldn’t imagine that occurring in many professional athletic settings.”
Taylor had been a member of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team throughout the IPL’s early years, but in 2011, the Rajasthan team purchased him for $1 million. The athlete, though, said that he would have chosen to remain with the Bangalore team over Rajasthan.
“When you fetch that sort of money, you’re desperately keen to prove that you’re worth it. And those who are paying you that sort of money have high expectations – that’s a professional sport and human nature. I’d paid my dues at RCB: if I’d had a lean trot, the management would have had faith in me because of what I’d done in the past. When you go to a new team, you don’t get that backing. You never feel comfortable because you know that if you go two or three games without a score, you come under cold-eyed scrutiny,” he said.
Taylor, who is of Samoan descent, reportedly stated that he encountered racism during his 16-year career playing cricket in New Zealand. He remembers racial “banter” in the locker rooms and casually discriminatory remarks from some club officials.
In his book, “Black & White,” Taylor states that “cricket in New Zealand is a relatively white sport.” “For a good portion of my career, I’ve stood out as a dark face among a sea of white players. That has its difficulties, many of which your teammates or the general cricketing audience aren’t immediately aware of.
I got 3–4 slaps from the owner of the Rajasthan Royals: Ross Taylor describes an IPL event from 2011
