KARACHI: New Zealand legendary batter Ross Taylor revealed a shocking incident from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and asserted that one of the owners of Rajasthan Royals slapped him in the face for bagging a duck. Taylor, who hung his boots from international cricket in April this year, made a shocking revelation in his autobiography – Ross Taylor Black and White – as he unveiled an incident from the cash-rich Indian league. “Rajasthan played Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. The chase was 195, I was lbw for a duck and we didn’t get close. Afterwards, the team, support staff and management were in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. Liz Hurley was there with Warnie,” Taylor was quoted in his autobiography. “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 revealed. The seasoned New Zealand cricketer, however, claimed that he was still unsure of the owner’s intent because the latter was laughing.

“He was laughing and they weren’t hard slaps but I’m not sure that it was entirely play-acting,” Taylor claimed. “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,” he maintained.

Taylor represented New Zealand in 450 matches across all formats in the course of his 16-year-long career and amassed 18,199 runs including 40 centuries. The right-handed batter is also the leading run scorer for New Zealand.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 14 2022

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