Ross Taylor Reveals One Strange Superstition He Followed Ahead Of His First World Cup Game
Ross Taylor Reveals One Strange: One of New Zealand’s greatest international cricketers called it quits this year, Ross Taylor. He retired from the game after 16 years and 18000 runs to his credit, in April.
Taylor black and white in his autobiography talks about superstitions that the players engaged in during his cricketing career. He mentions, one of the superstitions was not before any game in which a player was dismissed for a duck (-zero). This occurred on Taylor’s World Cup debut, against England, in 2007.
In 2007, I went out to a Chinese restaurant with Victoria. Liam Plunkett bowled me a full-stretch bouncer first at me, I nicked it and Andrew Flintoff took a one-handed diving catch on my attempted cover drive. That’s the rule; don’t have a duck on your stomach 24 hours before a game, Taylor mentioned.
Former Kiwi cricketer Kane Williamson also wrote about an interesting story that involved former England captain Andrew Flintoff. Williamson said Flintoff had an even ‘worse’ day than him after he had to be woken up by then England coach Duncan Fletcher’s pounding on the door the next morning.
Freddie also had a tough day as he also got a golden duck, didn’t take a wicket, and England was hammered. At about 1:30am, he decided that it would be good to have a nightcap with Ian Botham who was staying on the boat in Dubai. Freddie commandeered a pedalo and went out in the bay to go for a ride, but just before morning Freddie woke up wet and in sand between his toes. He opened his eyes to see Duncan Fletcher pounding on his hotel room door after having gotten stranded overnight and not being able to wake him himself.
Years later, we attended a dinner that included duck. I said that I couldn’t have the duck because I was playing in two days’ time. Our friends persuaded me that the rule only applied when I was playing the next day. So, I had some ducks and, sure enough, two days later I got a golden (first-ball duck).