Former Kiwi Cricketer Ross Taylor Recalls Facing Racism From His New Zealand Teammates And Officials

Ross Taylor, the former New Zealand cricketer recalls facing racial criticism from his teammates and officials. In his career spanned over 16 years, Taylor was one of the best batters the game had in the modern era. He played all three formats with equal success for the Kiwis. He scored 7864 Test runs, 8602 ODI runs, and 190 T20I runs for his side.

Ross Taylor retired from international cricket in December 2021. Recently, he came up with his autobiography named ‘Black & White.’ He has written stories of facing multiple racial criticisms in a country where cricket is supposedly called a pretty “white sport”. He further said that his tanned figure was targeted by various people across the cricketing community of New Zealand.

“For much of my career, I’ve been an anomaly, a brown face in a vanilla line-up. That has its challenges, many of which aren’t readily apparent to your teammates or the cricketing public” wrote Taylor in his autobiography.

He further said that people considered him to be of Māori or Indian heritage because Pacific representation in New Zealand cricket was very rare.

I Have Been A Brown Face In A Vanilla line-Up: Ross Taylor

“In many ways, dressing-room banter is the barometer. A teammate used to tell me ‘you’re half a good guy Ross but which half is good? You don’t know what I’m referring to.’ I was pretty sure I did. Other players also had to put up with comments that dwelt on their ethnicity. In all probability, a [white New Zealander] listening to those sorts of comments would think ‘oh, that’s okay, it’s just a bit of banter” Taylor further writes in his book.

Meanwhile, a New Zealand Cricket Spokesperson has come out with a statement in support of Ross Taylor. Speaking to the New Zealand Herald newspaper he said that the board “deplores racism, is a staunch supporter of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s Give Nothing to Racism campaign and is deeply disappointed Ross has been exposed to this type of behaviour.”

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