Ross Taylor comes out of retirement to play for Samoa

Ross Taylor has come out of retirement to represent Samoa in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup Asia-East Asia Pacific Qualifier. This tournament is the final step in Samoa's path to qualification for next year's Men's T20 World Cup. 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. Having completed a three-year standoff period since his last game for New Zealand in April 2022, Taylor can now play for a second international side.

For New Zealand, the now 41-year-old Taylor made 450 international appearances and scored 18,199 international runs across formats (Tests - 7683, ODIs - 8607, T20Is - 1909). He was also part of the New Zealand side which won the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in June 2021.

"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 also reckoned he needed to get up to speed quickly having not played as much cricket since his retirement from New Zealand in 2022.

"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 their campaign on October 8 in Oman. They will face Oman and Papua New Guinea in their two group games.