Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Ross Taylor Shares The Highs And Lows Of Professional Sport

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

After the release of his new book "Black and White" Ross Taylor joins Jono and Ben to chat about his career and the challenges of professional sport!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ross Taylor, our creating legend, joins us in the studio. Nice to see you. Ross, got a new book out today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's exciting. It's been a long process to get here. I guess it was a long career and it was nice to put my words onto paper. Now, John, I told you a few weeks ago that I punished Ross after a flight that went on. Now, Ross, I want to get your, because I've heard his side of the story. Look, I was first to put my hand up saying I punished him. He's ambushed you at the airport. You're trying to go on holiday.

He's got, can you sign my shirt? Can you do this? Can you do that? Yeah, I did actually. I did. On a scale of one to 10, how punishing was it? Oh, at least maybe seven. But yeah, I was like, because he came over, he gave me the shirt.

To be fair, we're the same school. Yeah, 100%. I've been interviewed a few times but yeah it was like do and i and then i handed the book over sort of like a simultaneous swap and he was like oh thanks mate and i said no no no no no no that's my copy i was like oh how do i yeah i felt and your wife was there i was a bit embarrassed for her so you hand it over the book but this is the demo of the book so you get an advanced copy And your wife was there. I was a bit embarrassed for her. So you hand it over to the book, but this is the demo of the book.

Yeah, so you get an advance copy, and I had it just to make sure the pages. I wasn't aware of this. Not 100%. I just went, oh, no, no, man, I can't take that. I'll pay for a copy. I can't remember who he knows. I was wearing a mask, you know. It's hard to hear those. It's muffled.

And it was this thing there. I was like, oh, I don't have the heart to tell him it was mine, but I did, I got it back, and it was some good reading in Fiji. To be fair, when someone's got a book on display, being you, you tried to take it, I can understand from your point of view, I can see both sides here. What was it like looking back on everything? Pretty amazing stats, most runs, most centuries for New Zealand,

most catches as well. When you first started, do you ever think you'd create you know you'd make all those achievements no not at all I think growing up in the bush I just wanted to play one game for New Zealand so to play 450 to achieve what I've achieved you know very proud but yeah it was a lot of warm-ups a lot of sacrifices with the family. Yeah, as I said, it was nice to, I guess, leave a legacy and hopefully the kids enjoy the read when they're older. When they're older. Do they get a free copy? Yeah, they helped me sign a few the other night.

But yeah, I told my daughter she can read it when she's 19. Speaking of family, you do hear that cricketers, you're away for 8 to 9 months of the year. How hard is it to maintain a family life? How much are you missing your family during those periods? I think it's a lot easier now than

the guys back in the 70s, 80s, 90s. You've got FaceTime, all the other stuff, the technology that you get to actually see your kids grow up where, you know, back then that wouldn't have had that, um,

you know, that technology to do that. But, um, no, they get to, they've got to see the world. Um,

but the only problem was it was cool to go on the family holiday because, you know, when you go on holiday, um, when they come on tour, that he, that's right, bro.

You can clear your throat. Do you want a water? A water. But yeah, so, but you know, you're playing two days later, so you're not really present. They get to, you're in India, you play with them at the pool and then you've got to go and play. So your mind's not quite there where it was nice to go to Fiji,

relax, see them grow up and have some mad radio jock come and try and punish you on your holiday. Do you know, because you went to the same school and he's got a bugbear that you're up on the wall of, you know, prestigious alumni. You're only there for a little bit too. Three years. Was it?

Okay. Obviously that wasn't enough. I went all the way through, but anyway, that's fine. And he's not on there once. Ben's not on there once, But you've made it three times. Yeah, it was... You're taking up a lot of wall space, and deservedly so. I mean, one of our greatest cricketers.

Okay, I know a few people there. I'm sure you do. I think maybe we should change that. Well, we even did it as a joke. We went through, and we came with a framed picture going, oh, this will be funny. Thinking the joke would maybe turn into a reality of, oh, we'll leave it up.

And they took it down afterwards. Oh, no. But that's fair enough, eh? That's where I stand in things as well. Yeah, so I was going to say, though, cricket's a very mentally tough sport to play, right? You know, you're pretty much out there, you know, thoughts in your head,

I imagine when you're batting, you've got Australians sledging you. There's a lot of insecurities when it comes to cricket. As you said, sledging uh your form uh the dynamics of the team um yeah but i guess that's the thing about this book i i you know there's a few few stories in there about sledging and and how you deal with it because what what what game do you actually play that you fail 65 percent of the time and you're still probably a world-class player yeah you gotta learn to deal with failure a lot. And what about comments?

Because we hear, sadly, the All Blacks, and that happens with teams. They go through some rough patches, and I'm sure we're trying to be positive. They'll turn things around. But cricket have been the same for you guys. You had some highs and lows. Is that hard to deal with?

100%. I think with the All Blacks, as a public, we're just so used to them winning. What national side can say they've won 86%, 87% of their entire team? But even when they win, they don't win enough for us. I don't know why that is. You should have won by more. It's like, oh, you only got four more tries in the opposition.

So what, because I know Julian Salvea came out this morning, and he's like, you know, this stuff I'm reading online, it's sickening. It's sad. It must be hard to separate the two. How did you deal with it? Did you block it out? I guess my career spanned 15 years so there was Twitter was coming along, Instagram

there wasn't a lot of keyboard warriors people would bring up Radio Sport and have their say where that's not there anymore so it's a lot easier to critique and have an say where that's not there anymore. So, you know, it's a lot easier to critique and have an opinion behind a keyboard. But I think it's when the majority are doing that. You know, you're going to get people who disagree or dislike you.

I mean, I scored one of the best innings. I got 181 against England, and there were still people who were pulling me down on that. For what? But, yeah, exactly that so it's just human nature that there's got to be people who say that but it's also in our brain that that's the only thing you go to, it's not the other 120 comments that were positive

it's the one or two negatives that are in there that you go, oh that person didn't like me, but it is what it is and you develop a thick skin and um and you learn to just deal with it and but i think as a player you deal with that a lot better it's the family and friends that yeah probably yeah probably um you know they don't have the ability to go out and perform they you know they live it and breathe it probably even more than

you do at the time now being uh ben boys is a huge cricketing fan, now my concern was that we were going to get into an abyss of intellectual cricketing questions so what I've done is I've written here some wide general cricketing questions for you to ask your hero Ross Taylor and Ross you can answer them and it'll just be

some broad questions so everyone can understand You've written these, okay First one, very broad. Did you enjoy playing cricket? I hated my job. Great question. I'm not asking him what's your home address. I mean, I've already looked like I was.

Another great question. Oh, are cricket bats heavy? Next question from Jono to Ross Taylor. My bat was 210. 210 of what? Ounces. How many kgs is that? Google.

Would you go for a heavier bat? Yeah, over time, your bats get heavier. Right. Does that obviously help get the ball further? Yeah, just hit the ball further. But then the ICC brought out, sorry, cricket this is going now this is going everything again sorry okay you know because players were just using two bigger bats and um smacking the ball out of the stadium and my final question from jono uh here who is your favorite friends character ross i'm

guessing ross who was your bFF on the team? Who's your best friend forever on the team? Martin Guptill. Oh really? Yeah, so Guppy's playing at the moment, just got out to a screamer, unfortunately, but yeah, it was a pretty cool career. I imagine. What did you think of the photos? The photos look good, yeah, I saw the photos when you held up the book, but the stories, it's getting a lot of media today, which is awesome, yeah. So can't wait to read the book, but the stories, it's getting a lot of media today, which is awesome. Yeah. So I can't wait to read the full copy.

Black and White, Ross Taylor. The book is out today. Go see it. Go get it. It looks like one heck of a read. Nice to see you, man. Thank you.