Cricket: Ryder, Bracewell handed bans

AUCKLAND: New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder and paceman Doug Bracewell have been handed one-match bans for going out and drinking while recovering from injury and being goaded into a verbal slanging match with a patron at a local pub. The pair defied team rules by drinking at a Napier bar after New Zealand’s One-Day International loss to South Africa on Wednesday. “They went out after the match, breaking team protocols and as a consequence have compromised their preparation and neither player can be considered for the next match,” read the statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2012.