Ross Taylor Approached Ben Stokes England star
Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has released his autobiography named ‘Black and White’ where he shared his personal and professional experiences and he talks about one such incident where he tried convincing Ben Stokes to play for New Zealand. Here in this article, we talk about when Ross Taylor Approached Ben Stokes England star.
Taylor in his book mentioned a story regarding Ben stokes saying “He was 18 or 19 and very much a Kiwi.” Over a Guinness, I asked him if he wanted to come and play in New Zealand. He was keen so I sent a message to New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan saying this guy Stokes was a really good young cricketer and interested in playing for New Zealand.”
“Vaughan replied along the lines that he could start playing domestic cricket and we would see where it went. I went back saying we would have to offer him more than that because he wouldn’t be interested if it meant starting on the bottom rung of the ladder. Obviously, it didn’t come to anything.”
In his book Taylor went on to say that “Ben was sincere about playing for New Zealand but NZC would’ve had to have acted swiftly and decisively and given him some pretty solid assurances, which Vaughan clearly wasn’t prepared to do.” source-(stuff.co.NZ)
Ross Taylor released his autobiography on August 11, in this book, there are many interesting unknown facts, and this Ben stokes’ story was one of the unknown facts.
Ben Stokes is now a key player for the England side and he is also considered a world-class player, he even helped his side win their first-ever ODI World Cup where he was the star man in the final.
Ross Taylor was also an important middle-order batsman in the New Zealand teams where he played so many match winnings innings and also captained the New Zealand side in several matches. One such incident is when he played a match-winning knock in the 2019 World Cup Semi-finals and help his side reach the ODI World Cup final.
