KEY POINTS:
If Jesse Ryder was nervous about the reception he would get when he faced the public for the first time since his latest alcohol-fuelled incident, he needn't have worried.
The loudest cheer of the first hour of play was reserved for when Ryder, at the end of the seventh over of yesterday's one-day international against the West Indies at Eden Park, took drinks out to his team-mates.
Even he must have been surprised by the warmth of the crowd, given he is trying the patience of his team-mates and paymasters.
Ryder was not available to talk about his reception, nor any aspect of the Wednesday night incident that saw him removed from yesterday's match. "He respectfully declines to comment," an NZC spokesman said. However, others were willing to talk.
Players' Association boss Heath Mills said he was disappointed Ryder was in trouble again but the association's role would be to support him.
"There is now no question he has a drinking problem," Mills said from Australia. "Jesse was told this after Christchurch but you have to wonder if he really believed it himself. I guess the most disappointing aspect is that he has not used the support offered to him as well as he should have.
"Hopefully, Jesse has finally realised he has a serious problem."
Despite Ryder's failure to use the support offered through New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and the association, Mills said the last thing they would do was wash their hands of him.
"I would be appalled if anybody had that attitude," he said. "This is not something that is going to be solved overnight but he is someone worth sticking with. It is cricket's job to support him in any way it can."
The Herald on Sunday was told Ryder had a breakfast meeting with broadcaster Murray Deaker yesterday. Deaker has acted as a mentor for Ryder since he stuck his hand through a toilet window last year and compounded matters by abusing Christchurch hospital staff. Deaker genuinely likes Ryder and also recognises the size of his task, having battled alcoholism.
"We're very supportive of the relationship," said NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan, "but it is something private between those two."
This is not the first incident involving Ryder and alcohol that has come to the attention of cricket authorities since his public disgrace in Christchurch last February. Following the A tour to Australia's far north in the winter, a dishevelled Ryder turned up at Cairns airport and he was seen by several members of the public in Wellington having what is euphemistically referred to as a 'blow out' after the tour to Bangladesh in October.
However, neither incident was regarded as serious enough to warrant censure and there was a recognition that although Ryder was far from rehabilitated, he was trying hard while he was in the team environment, particularly during the recent tour of Australia where the temptations were vast.
By the time of the second test against the West Indies, when he was again seen drinking in public, reporters were beginning to ask questions of Vaughan, so there was an air of inevitability about last week's incident.
Mills said it was too simple to say NZC or the Players' Association should have acted earlier.
"Maybe a closer watch should have been kept on him but I don't know, I think Jesse just has to work harder. There were indications things weren't going as well as they should have but none of those incidents were substantiated to any level."
On tour, Ryder has had a team-appointed 'minder'. In Bangladesh, Jacob Oram took him under his wing and, when he was unavailable for the Australian series, Kyle Mills took over.
However the vigilance and sense of 'team' on the road tends to dissipate in a home series, a point acknowledged by Mills. Outside influences tend to become more pronounced and friends in most big towns.
"Jesse needs to learn to say 'no'," Mills said.
Ryder's latest drunken misdemeanour will not have any effect on his contractual status with New Zealand Cricket, though it could if the incidents continue.
Vaughan yesterday told the Herald on Sunday Ryder's boozy night out in Wellington, causing him to miss a team meeting on Thursday morning, was classified only as 'ordinary misconduct' rather than 'serious misconduct', which could lead to the cancellation of a central contract.
The incident in Christchurch last February would have come under 'serious misconduct' but Ryder was not contracted to NZC at the time.
"Repeated 'ordinary misconducts' can be escalated into 'serious misconduct'," Vaughan warned.
He did not expect the incident to affect Ryder's chances of securing a lucrative IPL contract.
"That's really a question for the IPL franchises but Andrew Symonds didn't seem to have any problem finding a team."
The next IPL auction is on February 6 and Ryder will be on the block. Vaughan said there was a widespread desire in NZC to support Ryder, rather than push him to the outer.
"I thought it was a really good sign that Daniel Vettori was so insistent about wanting Jesse around the team yesterday. He could quite easily have banished him for the match and everybody would have understood but he was adamant he wanted him around."
