Felt Like A brown Face In A Vanilla Line Up, Says Ross Taylor Over Facing Racism

he Former batter of New Zealand, Ross Taylor revealed about the racism he faced while playing for New Zealand Cricket in his new book ‘Ross Taylor: Black & White’.

Auckland: Former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor revealed about the racism he faced while playing for New Zealand Cricket in his new book ‘Ross Taylor: Black & White’. Taylor announced his retirement from cricket in April this year. While talking with Sky Sport’s Laura McGoldrick, the former Kiwi batter explained about the racial discrimination he faced from his teammates, however, he didn’t name anyone particularly.

“I didn’t want it to detract from a lot of the other good stories that are out there,” He told Sky Sport. “But at the same time, a few of the stories involved a few of the players who are still in the team, so I didn’t want it to compromise them or put them in a compromising position because they’ve still got to have their career and they are still very young.” Taylor also said, “You are subject to it at different stages. The changing room banter, as I talk about, is almost the barometer.”

In his book, he recounts a moment when a teammate made a racial remark that made a massive impact on him. “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,” Taylor wrote in his book.

“In all probability, a Pākehā listening to those sorts of comments would think, ‘Oh, that’s okay, it’s just a bit of banter.’ But he’s hearing it as a white person and it’s not directed at people like him. So, there’s no pushback; no one corrects them.”
Taylor says cricket is “a pretty white sport” and he felt like “a brown face in a vanilla line-up”.

In the interview with Sky Sport, Taylor also mentioned that he believes society has now moved on to a place where it is more accepted to speak about racism.