AUCKLAND: New Zealand cricketers Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell have been suspended by the country’s cricket board after they were found hanging out for a late-night drinking session on the eve of the opening Test match against India here.
Bracewell and Ryder, who were part of New Zealand’s 13-member squad, have admitted they were in an Auckland bar in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“Their behaviour is totally unacceptable the night before a match. We trust the players to make good decisions and the pair have breached this trust,” team manager Mike Sandle was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald.
Bracewell, who was the backup fast-bowling option, turned up last morning with a broken bone in a foot.Ryder was on standby for leading batsman Ross Taylor, whose wife is due to give birth to a second child and may have been a late withdrawal.
The cricketers have admitted to Sandle that they had been on the town and NZC aren’t making any comment until their investigation is completed.
In February 2012, Bracewell and Ryder were suspended for one game after getting into an altercation in a Napier bar following a one-day international.
Bracewell missed all three tests against England at home last season after cutting his foot on glass cleaning up after a party at his house in Napier.
Ryder’s career too has been affected by bouts of ill-discipline. He suffered serious injuries in 2008 when he shoved his hand through a window in a Christchurch bar. He was suspended for a ODI in 2009 for breaching team protocols in Wellington.
He had received a six-month ban for failing a drug test early last year. (PTI)