New Zealand batsman bemused after narrowly avoiding ending up on television impersonating Game of Thrones character Grey Worm
Taylor unsullied by Game of Thrones gaffe
New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor headed across the narrow sea to escape the winds of winter and take up a county deal with Sussex. He could have been forgiven thinking winter was still coming for England when greeted with training sessions in the snow.
The Black Caps run-machine, who made 290 against Australia at the WACA last summer, tried to shake off the chill by joining UK broadcaster Sky Sports and the likes of Shane Warne as a studio pundit for coverage of the Indian Premier League.
But instead of ending up in a studio chatting cricket, Taylor nearly found himself an unwitting guest of honour on the pay TV network's biggest football show, mistaken for a star of the planet's biggest TV drama.
"(Sky) send a driver to pick you up; it's quite cool," Taylor told blackcaps.co.nz. "So the driver picks me up and drops me off at the gate. He said a runner was going to come pick me up, so a runner comes and picks me up and introduces himself. He said, 'You come with me,' so I followed him.
"He takes me into this little room; I didn't know anyone in there … then this guy comes over to me and hands me a mic.
"Now for the cricket I was told to bring dress shoes and pants and they will supply a shirt. Well this guy comes over and starts putting a clip up my shirt, and I'm like, 'Don't I have to get dressed up?'
"The guy goes 'What's your name?', I say, 'Ross Taylor' and then he turned around to his producer and said, 'Told you, that's not him'.
"And he goes, 'Oh mate, I'm so sorry. We've got the wrong person. We thought you were Grey Worm from Game of Thrones'."
Soccer AM had been expecting the hit drama's Commander of the Unsullied, who is familiar with dragons, to talk about a looming battle for the Red Devils.
"I was two minutes away from going on Soccer AM, the UK's massive Saturday morning soccer show ahead of the FA Cup semi-final as Grey Worm from Game of Thrones, who's a huge Manchester United fan apparently," Taylor said.
"It would've been like that guy who came to the BBC for a job interview that ended up talking live on TV. So that was pretty funny I thought."
Taylor escaped his dance with dragons and after a slow start is now flourishing in the seven kingdoms of Sussex where he has been leading from the front.
As they say in George RR Martin's world, valar morghulis, so all bowlers must suffer as Taylor wields his willow. The 32-year-old He has scored seven fifties in his past nine matches across all formats, passing the milestone in first-class, 50-over and T20 cricket, with an unbeaten 93 in a T20 match against Bristol the highlight.
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"The first two or three weeks were an interesting experience: I dropped my first catch probably within the first hour and my finger hasn't been the same since," Taylor said.
"The club and the team have been very good, very welcoming, and the family is loving it.
"I can't say I've ever trained in snow before. That was interesting. I had to go up for training in the snow, and then as I was driving home there was snow as well. Not something I normally associate with cricket.
"That's all part of it I guess. You know coming over here that you'll experience some different things," he chuckles.