Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote Taylor, part Samoan part Kiwi, is one of the best batsmen produced by New Zealand.

As far as his own family is concerned, it is strictly cricketing. His wife is Victoria Brown, a former left-handed batswoman and off-spinner of Northern Districts. His daughter Mackenzie and son Jonty watch their dad batting on television. Whenever Ross sticks out his tongue, the children know that daddy has got a hundred.

But when one of daddy's hundred became a real daddy hundred and Ross made it a double, Mackenzie was confused as to why he stuck his tongue out twice. However, dad fell for 290 in that Test. Ten more runs, and the daughter would have been confused even further.

With 17 Test hundreds and 20 ODI tons (a New Zealand record) at the time of writing, Taylor has made the tongue gesture a habit.

Ross Taylor was born on March 8, 1984.

Text: Arunabha Sengupta

Illustration: Maha