It is nice to finish on your own terms, says Ross Taylor
After announcing the decision to retire from international cricket, New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor has revealed that it feels nice to finish on your own terms. He further added that Covid-19 protocols and quarantine requirements were two of the reasons that forced him to think about retirement.
The New Zealand cricket team have been performing brilliantly in the last few years in all three formats, as they won the World Test Championship this year and also the Kane Williamson-led side marched to finals of the ICC World Cup 2019, and T20 World Cup 2021. New Zealand veteran batsman, Ross Taylor has been one of their mainstays over the years for the Black Caps, and played a crucial part with the bat for his side in the World Test Championship.
Ending speculations over his playing career, Taylor on Thursday, December 30 announced his retirement from international cricket. While sharing the emotions he is going through after the decision, Taylor stated that it is a nice thing to finish on your own terms.
"It's nice to finish on your own terms ... it's the right time for me and my family. At the same time I've still got some cricket to play. In an ideal world I would have played and then it at the end, but at this level you can't do that,” Taylor said, reported Cricbuzz.
The two Tests against Bangladesh will be the last appearance of Taylor in red-ball cricket. However, he will draw curtains on his white-ball career with the ODI series against Australia and Netherlands at home in April. Taylor revealed that he is looking forward to playing white-ball fixtures in Australia.
"That's a big thing that's been going through my mind the last couple of weeks. The Australian series is really close and with quarantine and coming back, it's probably going to be one side that goes to Australia and the Test side will stay behind,” he explained.
"That's what made the decision a lot easier. It would have been nice to play against South Africa, but Australia's a place I've always enjoyed ... and finishing my career playing one-day cricket which is probably my best format,” Taylor said.
Taylor further revealed he took the decision to retire after much contemplation.
"It's something that I've thought about for a long time, it's not a decision I've made in the last couple of weeks. It's nice to have a bit of clarity and finish on your own terms. I think it's just the right time for me and my family," he said.
"It (a farewell tour) doesn't sit that well with me but I know it needs to be done. I would have like to have just pulled the stumps but it gives my family and friends and fans a chance to come and watch me for one last time," he added.
Taylor has so far scored 7585 runs from 110 Test matches, and the right-hand batsman is the current leading run-getter for New Zealand in the red-ball format. The New Zealand veteran batsman also has the most runs (18074) across all formats for the national team. Taylor has so far scored 8576 ODI runs and 1909 T20I runs. Taylor believes that moulding his game for Test cricket was his biggest achievement.
"After my first Test series I thought that was me done, so I've done alright since then. I always thought I could play one-day cricket, I wasn't [100 per cent] on whether I'd be a good Test player or not, but I worked hard at that and I think that's probably my greatest achievement,” he stated.
“I could have just smacked it and averaged 30-odd but I changed my game for the team, I don't think many people would have been able to move their game in that direction and I'm happy I made that decision,” Taylor added.
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