Ross Taylor comes out of retirement to play for Samoa

Ross Taylor has decided to take a U-turn on his retirement decision and he will play for Samoa. Samoa will take part in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup Asia-East Asia Pacific Qualifier and Taylor would look to help them qualify for the T20I showpiece.

The former New Zealand international took to social media to announce his decision.

“It’s official – I’m proud to announce that I’ll be pulling on the blue and representing Samoa in cricket. This is more than just a return to the game I love – it’s the huge honour to represent my heritage, culture, villages, and family,” Taylor said.

Taylor is eligible to play for Samoa due to his mother’s heritage who is of Samoan descent. The 41-year-old has completed a three-year standoff period as he played his last International match for the Blackcaps in 2022 and thus he can represent Samoa.

Taylor made 450 international appearances for New Zealand and scored 18,199 international runs across formats.

“Yeah, I’m excited. It’s been a few months in the pipeline, but obviously the team just got announced today, so I had to make it exciting to represent the country of my mother’s birth,” Taylor said. “I always thought it would be more in coaching and other avenues. I never thought I’d play, but as the opportunity arose, yeah, looking forward to getting out there and hopefully representing and doing my best for Samoa.”

Taylor admitted he would need to hit the ground running as he hasn’t played a lot of cricket since announcing his retirement.

“Yeah, I obviously haven’t played a lot of cricket like we used to, so it’d be a bit of a shock to the system. But I’ve played in some tournaments, so it’s not as if I’ve gone three or four years without having played. But, yeah, I need to get up to speed as quick as I can. But that was the other thing that was nice to be able to do, train for a month or so, a couple of months, just to see how the body reacted and hopefully, not what it used to be at 41, but hopefully it’s good enough.”

Samoa will begin its campaign on October 8 against Oman.