"Afterwards, the team, support staff and management were in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. Liz Hurley was there with Warnie [Shane Warne]. One of the Royals owners said to me, 'Ross, we didn't pay you a million dollars to get a duck,' and slapped me across the face three or four times.”
A staged slap?
Taylor also claimed that the slap wasn't hard, but he couldn't imagine that this occured in many professional sporting settings.
“He was laughing and they weren't hard slaps but I'm not sure that it was entirely play-acting," Taylor said. "Under the circumstances I wasn't going to make an issue of it, but I couldn't imagine it happening in many professional sporting environments."
The Royals have yet to respond to questions concerning this event.
Taylor is claimed to have joined the Royals for one season in 2011 after being acquired for US$1 million, however, in this book he said that he should have been with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
"While it was amazing to go for a million dollars, in the long run I would've been better off if RCB had got me for US$950,000. If they had, it would have been my fourth year with them," Taylor wrote in his book.
However, he also said that if he had stayed with RCB for a longer period of time, he would not have had the opportunity to play with players such as Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene, and Yuvraj Singh, among others.
"While the IPL is pretty unsentimental, there is loyalty towards long-serving players and I probably would have had a longer IPL career as a one-franchise player. On the other hand, if I'd stayed at RCB, I wouldn't have played with greats such as Virender Sehwag, Shane Warne, Mahela Jayawardene and Yuvraj Singh.”
Taylor also mentioned the team's expectations when they paid so much money for him, which usually encourages individuals to demonstrate that they're worth it with the value.
"When you fetch that sort of money, you're desperately keen to prove that you're worth it," he continued.
"And those who are paying you that sort of money have high expectations - that's professional sport and human nature.”
He also remarked that with a new team, he doesn't have any backing if he doesn't play as the team expected.
“I'd paid my dues at RCB: if I'd had a lean trot, the management would have had faith in me because of what I'd done in the past. When you go to a new team, you don't get that backing. You never feel comfortable because you know that if you go two or three games without a score, you come under cold-eyed scrutiny."
