Ross Taylor in his memoirs “Black and White,” Taylor recounts a time when he and Dravid went to Ranthambore National Park in search of a tiger, and how the general people was more interested in staring at Dravid than in seeing the park’s uncommon inhabitants.
Ross Taylor wrote in his autobiography
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a tournament where foreign players and Indian players get to know each other. The competition has helped players from all over the world get along pretty well. Ross Taylor, a former New Zealand player, got to share the locker room with Rahul Dravid and Shane Warne during the 2011 IPL. Taylor learned from that tournament how much the Indian cricket players are loved by their fans and how hard it is for them to go out in public.
Ross Taylor wrote in his autobiography, “Ross Taylor: Black and White,” about a time when he and Dravid went to Ranthambore National Park to see a tiger, but most people were more interested in Dravid than in seeing a rare tiger.
Ross Taylor talked about Rahul Dravid
“‘How many times have you seen a tiger?’ I asked Dravid. He said, ‘I’ve never seen a tiger. I’ve been on 21 of these expeditions, but I haven’t seen a single one.’ I was like, “What? 21 safaris with no animals seen.’ I really wouldn’t have gone if I’d known that. I would have said, “No thanks, I’d rather watch Discovery.”
Jake Oram went out in the morning, but he didn’t find anything. He wanted to watch a baseball game on TV, so he didn’t join us on our mid-afternoon safari. Not long after that, our driver got a radio call from a coworker saying that they had found T-17, a famous tiger that had been tagged. “After 21 safaris, Dravid hadn’t seen so much as a tiger turd, but half an hour into his 22nd safari, he hit the jackpot,” Taylor wrote, according to stuff.co.nz.
Taylor stopped playing international cricket earlier this year
“We pulled up next to the other cars, which were SUVs with open tops that were a little bigger than Land Rovers. A good 100 meters away, the tiger was sitting on a rock. We were excited to see a wild tiger, but the people in the other cars pointed their cameras at Rahul right away. When they saw him, they were just as happy as we were when we saw the tiger. There are almost 4,000 tigers in the wild around the world, but there is only one Rahul Dravid,” he wrote.
Taylor stopped playing international cricket earlier this year, and on Thursday, he put out a book about his life. In the book, Taylor talked about times when he was treated badly because of his race. He talked about how people would talk about it in the locker room and how some staff and officials would say things about it. Taylor, who is part Samoan, said that for much of his career he had been “an outlier.”
“You’re half a good guy, Ross, but which half is good?”, Taylor said:
“Cricket is a pretty white sport in New Zealand. I’ve been an outlier for most of my career, a brown face in a line-up of white people. That has its challenges, many of which your teammates or the cricketing public won’t see right away “Taylor typed.
“In many ways, the barometer is the talk in the locker room. A teammate used to say to me, “You’re half a good guy, Ross, but which half is good?” You don’t understand what I mean. I thought I probably did. Others also had to listen to comments that focused on their race. Most likely, a Pakeha would think, “Oh, that’s fine, it’s just a joke,” if they heard comments like these. But he hears it as a white person, even though it’s not meant for him. So, there’s no pushback; no one tells them what’s wrong “He kept going.
