**Official** South Africa in New Zealand

[harsh.ag]

From what I have seen of him, I think Anderson needs to open for NZ to be at their most balanced.

 

[ohnoitsyou]

Anderson isn't shane watson guys. On ability, hand eye and power yes, but the idea of CJ opening is as lol worthy as CD ever winning the plunkett shield again.

 

[Flem274*]

Anderson isn't shane watson guys. On ability, hand eye and power yes, but the idea of CJ opening is as lol worthy as CD ever winning the plunkett shield again.

you're nervous

 

[harsh.ag]

Ftr, that's what they used to say for Sehwag

 

[Kippax]

You want to be sending Anderson in to face a pitch map cluster that's as short of a good length as possible, itbt. You also want some monstering of spinners who have been 'nerfed' in some way.

 

[SteveNZ]

I know the public will never be educated...but Brendon has been spot on the whole way through about Jesse.

He's shown no signs of wanting to be desperate or willing enough to commit to NZ. I actually think he's quite happy to never play international cricket again, our results to be mediocre and having Joe Talkback/ Stuff commentator (both massive morons) telling him in the pub how amazing he is and how **** the national side is without him.

 

[harsh.ag]

I know the public will never be educated...but Brendon has been spot on the whole way through about Jesse.

He's shown no signs of wanting to be desperate or willing enough to commit to NZ. I actually think he's quite happy to never play international cricket again, our results to be mediocre and having Joe Talkback/ Stuff commentator (both massive morons) telling him in the pub how amazing he is and how **** the national side is without him.

On cue

Blogs: Andrew Hughes: The Outlaw Jesse Ryder | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[BeeGee]

I'm growing tired of the NZ obsession with playing a bowler/all-rounder in the top order. And trying to fit Neesham and Anderson in the same team. We need to get back to the most basic of selection basics. Pick the 5 best 50 over batsmen in the country, pick the 5 best 50 over bowlers in the country. Throw in a keeper and there's your team.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'm growing tired of the NZ obsession with playing a bowler/all-rounder in the top order. And trying to fit Neesham and Anderson in the same team. We need to get back to the most basic of selection basics. Pick the 5 best 50 over batsmen in the country, pick the 5 best 50 over bowlers in the country. Throw in a keeper and there's your team.

I kind of agree, but having a sixth bowling option is definitely an important part of modern ODI cricket. Your sixth bowler doesn't have to be an allrounder as such but he does have to be someone who can roll the arm over to cover for someone's bad day or take advantage of unexpected pitch conditons. Teams usually tackle this problem by encouraging a batsman who bowled a bit in his youth to do some more work on it though, rather than opening the batting with a lower middle order allrounder.

 

[Days of Grace]

Practice dat offspin Guppy...

 

[SteveNZ]

On cue

Blogs: Andrew Hughes: The Outlaw Jesse Ryder | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

Very much on cue. Andrew Hughes equating Jesse's off-field work as the equivalent of two fried eggs.

That piece is either rot (as I deem it to be) or absolute genius, as a parody of how the New Zealand public, at large, see things.

Can't disagree at all with what BeeGee said - the caveat being the fact that our best batsmen domestically are in the side now, and they're not scoring runs. Having said that, I'm of the belief BJ should never have been dropped.

 

[social]

Had to laugh at this quote from Hession

"We always know Jesse is going to score runs - that's not the point."

Given that he is a batsman, I'd say scoring runs is the point

 

[Flem274*]

i'll be worried when we're getting skittled with Kane and Ross in the side.

and even then i still wouldn't be recalling jesse.

 

[social]

i'll be worried when we're getting skittled with Kane and Ross in the side.

and even then i still wouldn't be recalling jesse.

Ryder has just played a season of CC where his behaviour was (apparently) excellent and form very good

If the Black Caps cant control him then it also says quite a bit about their management failings

In any event, NZ simply doesn't have enough depth to completely ignore him and, at the very least, he should be in their WC squad

 

[straw man]

I'm growing tired of the NZ obsession with playing a bowler/all-rounder in the top order. And trying to fit Neesham and Anderson in the same team. We need to get back to the most basic of selection basics. Pick the 5 best 50 over batsmen in the country, pick the 5 best 50 over bowlers in the country. Throw in a keeper and there's your team.

Don't entirely agree and our bowlers give a good demonstration of why; none of our best five bowlers are good enough to bat at 7 and even 8/9 is a stretch for many of them, and we do need that lower order batting imo.
N. McCullum fits best at 8
Vettori's batting is an unknown at present but I expect him to be quite poor, and with a low SR to boot
Mills is a 9 or 10
Southee is a slogger at 9 or 10
Boult, Henry, McClenaghan and Bennett are various shades of number 11

So I'd be very reluctant to play five pure bowlers and think we do need to get 10 overs from our top 6 batsmen somehow, though noone is quite sure at this stage how that might work.

Edit: Though one of Neesham or Anderson is probably one of the best 6 ODI batsmen in the country and should bat at 6 regardless. Getting them to bowl a full ten overs every match could get ugly though and also leaves us with no backup for another bowler having a poor day. It's a difficult problem.

 

[Bahnz]

Ryder has just played a season of CC where his behaviour was (apparently) excellent and form very good

If the Black Caps cant control him then it also says quite a bit about their management failings

In any event, NZ simply doesn't have enough depth to completely ignore him and, at the very least, he should be in their WC squad

There've been a few rumours that Jesse's behaviour was far from excellent during his county stint.

Millmow: Jesse Ryder not Black Caps' sole hope | Stuff.co.nz

Essex coach Paul Grayson was effusive in his praise of Ryder's behaviour in England during our off-season. The man should be on stage. Reliable sources claim Ryder was no saint.

Admittedly Millmow has never liked Ryder, but I don't think that he'd make stuff up about him. And it isn't hard to believe either.

Ryder has been given an incredible amount of support during his international career, more so than most other countries would give to a player of his calibre. The fact that he can't be controlled says nothing about the Black Caps management capabilities and everything about Ryder.

 

[Kippax]

Bloody NZC, with their early-bird flight bookings. Stop being such 'morning people'; it's insufferable.

Wild Ryder
Simon Wilde Published: 25 May 2014

JESSE RYDER's life has rarely run smooth but an incident 14 months ago decisively reshaped it. He had been drinking with Wellington teammates in a Christchurch bar when he was violently attacked outside by two men. The assault left him with a fractured skull and a collapsed lung, and he spent three days in a medically induced coma. He remembers next to nothing about what happened but knows he is lucky to be alive.

“It took a good six months to get back to half of what I was,” he recalled. “It was physical stuff mainly, although my head still had issues. I aspirated. The lungs were stuffed. It took months of slowly building up [my health].

“There are not too many issues now, although I notice every now and again that I get lightheaded. I’m not really worried that it might happen again but it could, you never know. These days, people out there do stuff like that. But I try not to put myself in those situations. I’ve been out probably a handful of times since then. I try and stay away from places like that.”

For a man with a reputation for raising hell, taking the decision to stay away from drinking spots cannot have been easy. Remarkably, Ryder scored a hundred in his first game back, for his new province, Otago, against his old side, Wellington. The switch of teams played a vital part in a remarkable revival: far from diminished by his ordeal, he powered his way to three hundreds and two eighties in his first five first-class matches.

It led to a return to the New Zealand side after a self-imposed absence of 18 months following a string of disciplinary and injury setbacks. After a fifth-ball duck, he blasted a hundred off 46 balls in an ODI against West Indies, the sixth-fastest ODI hundred on record (although somewhat overshadowed by teammate Corey Anderson smiting the fastest ever in 36 balls in the same innings). Admittedly, the boundaries in Queenstown were short but this suggested a man liberated again. Perhaps he was too liberated. Reports emerged of him drinking later in the series, as did allegations of a late night on the eve of a Test against India in Auckland. The selectors’ patience seemed to snap and New Zealand have not chosen him since; he has already been excluded from a tour of West Indies in July.

Ryder, who speaks quietly and with little emotion, insists the coverage was unfair. “That last incident blew up pretty badly and I don’t really have time for the media back home any more. I don’t even know how to word it, because it would probably make me look bad, but I wasn’t going to play in that Test. I hadn’t trained the day before the game and I was already booked on a flight out the day of the Test. There was never a chance of me playing. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve done some stupid stuff that I shouldn’t have and I put my hand up and say I’ve done it, but some of it [media coverage] frustrates you. Back home, it’s such a small place the media love to make a lot of it. Getting out of New Zealand and being over here will do me wonders.”

Ryder has signed to play for Essex in all formats. The decision raised eyebrows in some quarters but Ryan ten Doeschate, the club’s one-day captain, played alongside him at Otago and saw how well he batted, and championed his cause. Ryder had put out feelers about playing county cricket but Essex provided the most allure; James Foster and Graham Napier had also played in New Zealand.

The big change after the attack was that he rediscovered his love of the game. When he withdrew from playing for New Zealand two years ago, he was close to quitting. “I thought about giving up. It had got to the stage where I couldn’t be bothered with it and all that went with it. It’s a big thing to say that but if it’s not making you happy then what’s the point in trying to push through? You definitely don’t play your best when you’re not enjoying it.

“I think the enjoyment came back when I went to Otago. It was a fresh start, a new group of lads. They were very welcoming and the environment was really good. I’d spent 10 years at Wellington. It was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m hoping the same thing will happen here at Essex. I really wanted to get out of New Zealand and I’m happy these guys are giving me a chance.

“I actually didn’t realise how much cricket they played until I got here, but it will keep me busy, keep me training well and hopefully I’ll learn more about my game. I just want to do really well, get re-signed and come back. That was one of my goals when I came over.”

Ryder is solidly built and has long battled to keep his weight under control. He admits to having had a couple of “sloppy” months after the New Zealand season but he intends to eat healthily and maintain good routines in England. “I’ve had probably three beers since I got here,” he added. “I’m not trying to cut it out, I’m just trying to do the best I can for these boys, so I’ll stay off it as much as possible. I might have the odd beer with dinner, or a team beer, but I’m not looking to be going out and getting ****-faced.

“I’m staying in a lodge 15 minutes out of town and I’m more than happy to be out there. I always enjoyed going out and socialising but these days I’m more relaxed. It doesn’t faze me if I’m going out or not. Some people grow up quicker than others.”

Whether he will play for New Zealand again remains to be seen. He is 29 years old so there is time yet for a rapprochement but maybe, as with England and Kevin Pietersen, it is time for both parties to move on. He insists that resuming his international career is not something he is even thinking about.

Whoever he plays for, he has a lot to offer as an aggressive left-handed batsman who made his reputation in one-day cricket but reckons he is best suited to the longer forms; he has a Test double-century against India to his name.

It has not been a great couple of weeks for New Zealand cricket, with match-fixing allegations swirling around some former Test players. “It’s a great shame for cricket in general and for New Zealand cricket especially,” Ryder said. “You think you’re never involved in a game that would be fixed and it would be a shame if you had been. Who knows? I’m sure in time the truth will come out.”

 

[BackFootPunch]

Ryder has just played a season of CC where his behaviour was (apparently) excellent and form very good

If the Black Caps cant control him then it also says quite a bit about their management failings

In any event, NZ simply doesn't have enough depth to completely ignore him and, at the very least, he should be in their WC squad

Everything I've heard seems to indicate Ryder wasn't 'controlled' at Essex. They just let him get on with it and play cricket. If he wanted to have a few beers at the local pub then it wasn't a problem and no one recognised him anyway. There was enough cricket in the County season that he always had something to do. Plus he performed so Essex obviously had no complaints. I believe he's treated much the same way at Otago.

New Zealand cricket just can't take that risk though. He's got too much history with them and the situation is different. They've stipulated that he has to be willing to buy into the culture if he wants back in the team, which is fair enough. So really this is all on Ryder, and it seems he's not particularly desperate to change just to play international cricket. It just isn't that important to him.

 

[SteveNZ]

There've been a few rumours that Jesse's behaviour was far from excellent during his county stint.

Millmow: Jesse Ryder not Black Caps' sole hope | Stuff.co.nz



Admittedly Millmow has never liked Ryder, but I don't think that he'd make stuff up about him. And it isn't hard to believe either.

Ryder has been given an incredible amount of support during his international career, more so than most other countries would give to a player of his calibre. The fact that he can't be controlled says nothing about the Black Caps management capabilities and everything about Ryder.

Millmow would absolutely make stuff up if he felt it read well. The bloke is not a man of integrity when it comes to the written word. Also a bloke who attacks the commitment and bravery of players, yet had pace and talent himself but would regularly pull up lame - especially if it was a flat one.

To our man Social, it probably looks like a clear cut case of runs are the only currency with Jesse...but trust us who have followed him from day dot that it goes a lot deeper. He's not going to be in the WC squad because he's exhibited time and again that he doesn't want it. And over the past 24months, he hasn't screamed pick me with his performances anyway - in ODI cricket I refer to.

What sums up Jesse is he still thinks he did zero wrong when he was out drinking the night before, despite not being in the XI. It's now expected that you make sacrifices to play for your country. If you're not prepared to make one by not going out on the piss because youre a 1-100 chance to play the next day, then someone else will be.

And current management can't be blamed. One guy on that night out is going on the UAE Test tour, because the door was still open and he proved he deserved to walk back through it. The other doesn't want to change, and never will. So be it.

 

[Athlai]

I'm not ruling out Jesse playing in the WC just yet, he has this summer to show he deserves to be in the team. The thing is with Jesse, we're not talking about his performances on the field, we're talking about how he acts off the park.