Ross Taylor has made a massive revelation in his newly published book 'Black and White'. The former New Zealand cricketer revealed that during Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, he was slapped by Rajasthan Royals (RR) owner three or four times because he got out for a duck against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in a league match while chasing 196.
“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. Under the circumstances I wasn’t going to make an issue of it, but I couldn’t imagine it happening in many professional sporting environments,”
The 38-year-old went through a rough patch in the 2011 season and managed to score just 181 runs from 12 innings. His highest score in the season was 47 not out.
The recently retired legendary Kiwi cricketer has made a few big revelations in his book. He also recalled few incidents of casual racism during his early days in the New Zealand dressing room.
He was paid a Royals picked Taylor for a million dollars after an intense bidding war. In the book, he also said that staying at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would have meant that he had a longer IPL career.
However, he feels that he would not have played with legends like Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene and Yuvraj Singh had he continued to play for RCB. After just one season with Royals, he played for Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals).
Taylor revealed another incident during his stint with Royals when he got mobbed in a mall in Jaipur. Taylor and Johan Botha requested Rahul Dravid to go out for a coffee. Initially Dravid said no but the two Royals convinced him to come with them anyway. Eventually, they had to take help from mall security to get out from the mall.
