Former New Zealand legend Ross Taylor has officially come out of retirement and will now represent Samoa in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup Asia-East Asia Pacific Qualifier. The tournament, scheduled for October in Oman, serves as the final stage in Samoa’s bid to qualify for the Men’s T20 World Cup next year. Taylor, who last played for New Zealand in April 2022, had to complete the mandatory three-year cooling-off period to be eligible to represent another nation. With that period now over, he qualifies to play for Samoa, thanks to his mother’s Samoan heritage.
The 41-year-old confirmed the news through social media, writing: “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.”
Reflecting further on the decision, Taylor explained: “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. 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 also admitted that returning to competitive cricket at 41 posed new challenges. “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.”
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Taylor: NZ Legend
Taylor’s record for New Zealand remains one of the most decorated in the country’s cricket history. Across 450 international matches, he amassed 18,199 runs, broken down as 7683 in Tests, 8607 in ODIs and 1909 in T20Is. He was also a pivotal member of the Black Caps side that won the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in June 2021. Samoa will begin their qualifying campaign on October 8 in Oman with matches against Oman and Papua New Guinea. Taylor, who has featured in 102 T20Is for New Zealand before retirement, will now lend his experience and skill to Samoa’s historic attempt at World Cup qualification.
Samoa T20 Squad: Caleb Jasmat (captain), Ross Taylor, Darius Visser, Sean Solia, Daniel Burgess, Douglas Finau, Sam French, Kurtis Hynam-Nyberg, Ben Mailata, Noah Mead, Solomon Nash, Samson Sola, Fereti Sululoto, Saumani Tiai, Ili Tugaga.