It’s a chilly May morning in London and BLACKCAPS star Ross Taylor is all set for his debut stint as an IPL pundit on Sky Sports UK.
“They send a driver to pick you up; it’s quite cool,” Taylor told blackcaps.co.nz.
“So the driver picks me up and drops me off at the gate. He said a runner was going to come pick me up, so a runner comes and picks me up and introduces himself. He said, ‘you come with me,’ so I followed him.
“He takes me into this little room; I didn’t know anyone in there. The only person I recognised was Michael van Gerwen, the old darts player.” At this stage Taylor could sense something wasn’t quite right, but in a typically nonchalant fashion goes with the flow.
He continues: “Then this guy comes over to me and hands me a mic. Now for the cricket I was told to bring dress shoes and pants and they will supply a shirt. Well this guy comes over and starts putting a clip up my shirt, and I’m like, ‘don’t I have to get dressed up’?”
By now Taylor knows he’s not in the right place and others soon realise this as well.
"The guy goes 'what’s your name?’, I say, ‘Ross Taylor,’ and then he turned around to his producer and said, ‘told you, that’s not him’. And he goes, ‘oh mate, I’m so sorry. We’ve got the wrong person. We thought you were Grey Worm from Game of Thrones’.”
“So I was two minutes away from going on Soccer AM, the UK’s massive Saturday morning soccer show ahead of the FA Cup semi final as Grey Worm from Game of Thrones - who’s a huge Manchester United fan apparently.
“It would’ve been like that guy who came to the BBC for a job interview that ended up talking live on TV. So that was pretty funny I thought!”
When he’s not being mistaken for TV stars, Taylor’s enjoying life as the overseas pro at the Sussex cricket club in the English south.
“It’s been really good so far. The first two or three weeks were an interesting experience. I dropped my first catch probably within the first hour and my finger hasn’t been the same since. But nah, it’s been a good move. The club and the team have been very good, very welcoming, and the family is loving it.
“I can’t say I’ve ever trained in snow before. That was interesting. I had to go up for training in the snow, and then as I was driving home there was snow as well. Not something I normally associate with cricket. That’s all part of it I guess. You know coming over here that you’ll experience some different things,” he chuckles.
The 32-year-old’s been in decent form so far, having scored seven half centuries in his last nine outings.
Those clashes have seen him face off against a host of his fellow countryman scattered across the country plying their trade in the New Zealand off-season.
“You seem to be coming up against another Kiwi most weeks which is cool and it’s nice to keep an eye on how they’re all going,” Taylor said.
“I had a great battle with Matt Henry when we played Worcestershire early on. Our coach came up to me and said, ‘Mate, Henry stepped it up when you came out to bat’. He has bowled very well and any time you bowl 50 odd overs in a game especially with the intensity that he was bowling at - it’s impressive.
“I sort of joked to him afterwards that he might get a call from Mike Hesson or David White saying just tone down the overs. He was bowling like he should save those for the Test matches.”
The next Test matches for the BLACKCAPS will be in Africa in late July to early August, when they take on Zimbabwe and South Africa for two Tests each.
The 15 man squad for that tour has been named - click here for the full story.
