“Ben Stokes wanted to play international cricket for New Zealand, but NZC didn’t pursue,” reveals Ross Taylor in his autobiography Black and white

The former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has revealed that the current England test captain Ben Stokes, who also won an ODI World Cup with England in 2019, actually wanted to play for New Zealand at one stage of his career.

Ross Taylor has recently written a book named “Black and white” and some of the excerpts from the book have been reported in the New Zealand media. Taylor has talked about various cricketing experiences in his book and one of them is his interaction with Stokes when the latter was 19 years of age.

According to Taylor, he could see the talent of Stokes at that age itself when he was not even playing for the first XI of Durban and when he asked him if he would like to represent New Zealand as he was a Kiwi by birth, Stokes showed quite a lot of interest.

Kiwi captain Kiwi Coach, England Test Cricket team 😁

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But, when Taylor took the matter to the Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Cricket (NZC), he told him if Stokes had to throw his hat in the ring for New Zealand selection, he would have to play domestic cricket in New Zealand and only then NZC could consider him.

I asked NZC to offer Stokes a bit more than just a domestic cricket contract, but they didn’t: Ross Taylor

Ross Taylor further writes in his book that he knew that it was not going to work that way because Stokes wouldn’t be ready to start from scratch in New Zealand again, after having already started from scratch in England. So, he told the NZC CEO that they should offer Stokes something more than just a domestic cricket contract, but the CEO refused and the move didn’t materialize.

Stokes soon made it to the first XI of Durban County Cricket Club in England and later to the England national team as well. For NZC, it was an opportunity missed because Stokes was automatically eligible to play international cricket for them if they had pursued it.