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. Afterwards, the team, support staff and management were in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. The chase was 195, I was lbw for a duck and we didn’t get close. There was never a dull moment with Shane Warne around.Ī case in point: Rajasthan played Kings XI Punjab in Mohali. You never feel comfortable because you know that if you go two or three games without a score, you come under cold-eyed scrutiny. When you go to a new team, you don’t get that backing. I’d paid my dues at RCB: if I’d had a lean trot, the management would have had faith in me because of what I’d done in the past.
SHUSH WHITE NOISE PROFESSIONAL
And those who are paying you that sort of money have high expectations – that’s professional sport and human nature. When you fetch that sort of money, you’re desperately keen to prove that you’re worth it. On the other hand, if I’d stayed at RCB, I wouldn’t have played with greats such as Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene and Yuvraj Singh. While the IPL is pretty unsentimental, there is loyalty towards long-serving players and I probably would have had a longer IPL career as a one-franchise player.
If they had, it would have been my fourth year with them. While it was amazing to go for a million dollars, in the long run I would’ve been better off if RCB had got me for US$950,000. As much as I like Indian food, I did get to the point of making the odd visit to McDonald’s. Victoria, who was pregnant, was at home organising the wedding and renovating the house. I spent four months in India that year: two months at the World Cup, two months with Rajasthan.
* Shane Warne reveals paparazzi chaos of his time with Elizabeth Hurley * Black Caps vs India: The glorious magic, muddle and mystery of test cricket * The real Shane Warne: 'He smoked like a green log and just ate toast – but what a bowler' In the privacy of the changing room, he was more philosophical: “Remember, boys, it’s just a cricket match. Talking to the media, new coach John Wright called our performance “unacceptable”. Pakistan needed fewer than four overs to knock off the required runs and win by 10 wickets. The game didn’t go into the fourth day: we were skittled for 110 on what was a decent batting wicket. Shortly after tea on day three we were 36-0 in our second innings, 56 runs behind. It was like “What the heck just happened?” My first reaction was to shush him, as if to say “Keep it under wraps.” We went home and had a few champagnes and Mum and Dad came around. Ross came out with Jesse and a few others, looked at me and went “A million bucks!” really loud. I walked into the ground – there was no one around. I was shaking, thinking, ‘Holy shit, what’s happening?’ Then the Rajasthan Royals came in at US$1 million. I was trying to find out which team was doing the bidding – it was good old RCB. The noise from the changing room was getting louder and had gone from “Woo-hoo” to more like “Whoa”. When it got to US$650,000, I went outside to ring Victoria.
Early on, Bangalore bought AB de Villiers for US$1.1 million. In the changing room, Brendon was following the auction on his phone and providing a running commentary. The visitors were 235/4 in reply to our first innings of 275. The 2011 IPL auction got under way after stumps on day two of the first test against Pakistan at Seddon Park. The following chapter is extracted with permission from Ross Taylor: Black & White, written with Paul Thomas ($49.99 Upstart Press). Ross Taylor signs off from the Black Caps earlier this year.
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