The newly-released tales of cricket retiree Ross Taylor have revitalized the discussion of racism within the sport.
In Taylor’s autobiography titled “Ross Taylor: Black & White”, he stated that he had experienced instances of racism on his New Zealand team.
Taylor, who is of Samoan descent through his mother’s side, mentioned that over the years, he encountered “dressing-room banter,” which included derogatory comments about himself and fellow teammates’ ethnicity that was often passed off.
The 38-year-old prefaced the fact that due to the predominant-“white sport,” he was seen as an anomaly, “a brown face in a vanilla line-up.”
Mentioning his heritage was normally mistaken for being Indian or Maori. One of the moments that recounted was a time when one of his teammates would say to Taylor “You’re half a good guy,” about being half Samoan.
Citing the behavior as “insensitive”, the New Zealand Herald made a statement on the matter, denouncing any acts of prejudice, and stating that they will be reaching out to him immediately following the news.
The story revisits numerous instances of racism in English & Scottish cricket, many of which were reprised in the now-famed Azeem Rafiq case, where he endured racist comments within Yorkshire, his longtime club.
The Black Caps captain retired back in April, after a 16-year career.
