Editorial: Jesse Ryder's dumping is unjust

There was more than a hint of injustice in Jesse Ryder's predictable dumping from the Black Caps last week.

He and two fellow teammates were drinking at Napier's Cri Cafe & Bar after the New Zealand team's loss to South Africa on Wednesday night.

There was nothing remarkable about that.

What was remarkable were the actions of two businessmen from Rotorua, who seemed to take infantile pleasure in taunting the cricketer.

If the baiting wasn't shameless enough, they took even more pleasure from going public about their actions. And while they didn't deserve it, the two managed to get their names in ink across all major newspapers in the country.

But guess who pays?

Ryder was dropped for the final one-dayer.

Days later, former Black Cap Simon Doull joined the dissenters and said the 27-year-old should be officially axed from the team. He said Ryder had repaid coach John Wright's faith in him with a "kick in the teeth".

What kick? This guy reacted only after persistent and unwarranted jibes from two unsophisticated businessmen. No jaws, laws, were broken. Doull continued: "The message they [NZ Cricket] are sending to younger players who train their guts out and don't carry on like Ryder, is that you don't have to be professional to play for your country."

Drivel.

Professionalism, in Ryder's case, oddly enough, pertains to playing cricket.

Just how professional were the two businessmen? They too were "off field", but faced no repercussions, despite inciting the incident.

I simply don't subscribe to the sportsman as role model theory. These guys aren't selected to be role models, they're selected to play sport. If they have off-field qualities young players wish to emulate, that's simply a bonus.

Aspiring young cricketers deserve some credit. It's not a case of monkey-see-money-do. Most want only to rival Ryder's run rate, not his tequila intake. The push to curb this country's booze culture is, of course, a worthy one. But Ryder didn't sign up as poster boy for that initiative any more than the dozens of others in that bar last Wednesday.

This player, who has more raw talent than any other in the current Black Caps squad, is on the brink of being cut loose due to puritanical drinking protocols.

I struggle to see how his actions have let his team down. If the suggestion is boozing has an impact on performance, I can reel off a long list of sportsmen whose records suggest debauchery does anything but preclude high performance.

No one's advocating a sense of entitlement to the elite; if these guys break laws through boozing then, of course, they'll pay the piper.

But I get the distinct impression Ryder will be set adrift for all the wrong reasons. This talented young man's career should end only when his form does.