Ross Taylor. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand cricket great Ross Taylor has revealed that current Black Caps players made racially insensitive comments towards him.
In his new book 'Ross Taylor: Black & White', the former Black Cap – who retired from international cricket in April after a 16-year career – said he has experienced racism in New Zealand cricket.
Taylor touched briefly on racially charged "banter" in the dressing room from teammates but didn't go into specifics, and explained in an interview with Sky Sport's Laura McGoldrick that he took out stories involving racist comments during the editing process for his book to avoid "compromising" players within the current Black Caps team.
"I didn't want it to detract from a lot of the other good stories that are out there," he told Sky Sport on Thursday.
"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 added: "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 stuck with 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 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 noted that for most of his career he was "an anomaly, a brown face in a vanilla line-up".
He said when such comments are made "the onus falls on the targets".
"You wonder if you should pull them up but worry that you'll create a bigger problem or be accused of playing the race card by inflating harmless banter into racism. It's easier to develop a thick skin and let it slide, but is that the right thing to do?"
Taylor also wrote that former All Blacks and NRL star Sonny Bill Williams felt many young Māori and Pasifika were held back and weren't given the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
"I know from personal experience how true that is," Taylor wrote.
"I'd hope that one of the takeaways from my career is that good cricketers can emerge from a Polynesian background."
He said cricket gear can be more expensive compared to other sports "which probably puts some Polynesian parents off the game".
"But maybe New Zealand Cricket should be putting more resources into the Polynesian community because there must be more where I came from."
In the interview with Sky Sport, Taylor said he believes society has now moved on to a place where it is more accepted to speak about racism.
"We've moved on a lot that I can even talk about, I think."
New Zealand Cricket told the Herald they were unaware of the allegations made in Taylor's book.
"NZC deplores racism, is a staunch supporter of the NZ Human Rights Commission's 'Give Nothing to Racism' campaign, and is deeply disappointed Ross has been exposed to this type of behaviour," a spokesperson said.
"We'll definitely reach out to Ross to discuss the matter."
Taylor represented New Zealand in 112 tests, 236 ODIs, and 102 T20s between 2006 and 2022 and is one of the country's greatest players.