Cricket: NZ team 'remains on Ryder's radar'

Dimitri Mascarenhas. Photo / Paul Taylor

Any assertions that Jesse Ryder doesn't want to play for his country are not true, according to Otago Volts coach Dimitri Mascarenhas.

"It's completely false. He wants to play for New Zealand," Mascarenhas said amid media speculation the former Hawke's Bay cricketer has lost his appetite for the Black Caps.

The 30-year-old has plied his trade for Essex in the second division of county cricket in England.

Some cricket commentators believe he has gone off the national team after falling out with New Zealand Cricket and ex-teammates following yet another drinking episode with CD Stag Doug Bracewell last February.

Bracewell has changed his attitude and lifestyle to win his berth back in the test side but there's debate on whether NZ Cricket's problem child, Ryder, should be enticed back into coach Mike Hesson's equation.

Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum has publicly expressed wariness about the risks Ryder poses to the collective should he regress to his old habits with the ODI World Cup early next year.

There's some speculation he will be in the NZ A squad to UAE next month but Ryder didn't show any tell-tale signs of that yesterday in Napier.

Said Mascarenhas: "Look, it's great he's back and involved - you know, NZ A to start and then, hopefully, go from there.

"He's a class player - everyone knows that and everyone has seen it - now it's up to him to perform consistently and maybe get a shot at New Zealand.

"If he's involved, that's brilliant for him. If not, then look, he's working some things out between him and New Zealand so I'm sure they'll come to some arrangement."

Mascarenhas said Ryder was prepared to do whatever the NZ hierarchy needed him to do "so I'm sure he'll deliver".

The domestic cricketers will shed their whites for the opening round of the Georgie Pie Super Smash T20 starting in Hamilton on Saturday, after the inaugural North Island v South Island clash tomorrow night.