Ross Taylor reveals that an IPL franchise owner slapped him across the face three of four times
Former Kiwi’s skipper Ross Taylor has said that Rajasthan Royals owner had slapped me across the face three or multiple times after he’d succumbed to a duck in a game during the 2011 season yet figured it wasn’t ‘entirely play-acting.
Former Kiwi’s skipper Ross Taylor has said that Rajasthan Royals owner had slapped me across the face three or multiple times after he’d succumbed to a duck in a game during the 2011 season.
Taylor conceded they weren’t hard slaps and done as such in a light climate in the midst of giggling, yet figured it wasn’t ‘entirely play-acting. Taylor disclosed in his autobiography Ross Taylor: Black and White.
“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,”
Taylor wrote in his book, an extract from which was published on stuff.co.NZ.
“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.”
In the wake of expenditure the first three seasons of the IPL at Royal Challengers Bangalore, Taylor was gobbled up by Rajasthan Royals for USD 1 million – a sticker price that accompanied its pressures.
“While it was amazing to go for a million dollars, in the long run, I would’ve been better off if RCB had got me for US$950,000. If they had, it would have been my fourth year with them.
“While the IPL is pretty unsentimental, there is loyalty towards long-serving players and I probably would have had a longer IPL career as a one-franchise player. On the other hand, if I’d stayed at RCB, I wouldn’t have played with greats such as Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene, and Yuvraj Singh,”
Taylor wrote.
Taylor scored 280 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 134.61 in the 2009 season in South Africa, where RCB arrived at the final. He played only seven games in 2010 before the preceding Royals prized him away. He lasted there for just one season though and felt the pressure of increased scrutiny.
“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,”
Taylor wrote.