After show casing his talents very well over the last month in a victorious one day series against England, Jesse Ryder the black caps new hope in the opening spot has caused his own downfall and injured himself which will put him out of contention for the next three months and maybe missed the boat totally for test match cricket.
Ryder who has scored 196 runs in the five ODIs against England with an impressive strike rate of 91.1 was tipped for a test place but after this incident his place in the black caps future is in doubt.
Celebrating their series win against a hot and cold England team, Ryder and friends went out for a few drinks. A few drinks turned into a drinking session that was ended abruptly at 5:30am when Jessie Ryder could not gain access to a locked toilet in a local Christchurch bar and in his drunken rage smashed his hand through a window, causing much damage to his right hand. Not knowing the extent of the injury, Ryder was taken to Christchurch Hospital and later the same day (Sunday) had an operation to save the tendons on his index finger on his right hand. Ryder’s Night went from bad to worse; when he arrived at the hospital he hurled abuse at the hospital staff who were trying to treat him.
The New Zealand management were already in a spin with reports of a drinking session which ended at 1:30am the night before the penultimate ODI game against England in which Ryder was named in the party of drinkers.
Jesse Ryder has released a statement along side the New Zealand management apologising for his actions:
"My behaviour was pathetic, and I will be apologising to them (hospital staff)," Ryder said. "I apologise to the public and all the people who have supported me. My behaviour was unacceptable. I understand there are issues I need to address. I am committed to working with New Zealand Cricket to get back on track and back in the team."
With Ryder out of the next two series, the New Zealand squad will have to work hard to find a pair to open the batting. This has been a problem for many years for the black caps. A long time passed with out NZ finding a suitable partner for their former captain Stephen Fleming. Will this give one of the other NZ batsmen a chance to shine and may hold Ryder’s place at the top of the order for a lot longer then just the 3 months that is will take for Ryder’s hand to recover.
TomA