Curtains on Jesse Ryder’s domestic career in New Zealand

It might just be curtains on Jesse Ryder’s domestic career in New Zealand as he couldn’t earn a contract from Central Districts for the upcoming domestic season. Most of the domestic associations put up the list of players who have been signed up in the first round for the upcoming 2018-19 season. Ryder had been with Central Districts for the last three seasons but they are looking at a long-term perspective now.

The 33-year-old played international cricket for the Black Caps for almost 6 years from 2008-2014 though sporadically but across all three formats. Ryder 18 Tests, 48 ODIs and 22 T20Is for New Zealand scoring 1269, 1362 and 457 runs respectively. Peter de Wet the chief executive of the domestic team said that it was a difficult decision for the team but they want to focus on giving the younger lot better opportunities.

“It was a very difficult decision not to offer Jesse a new contract as we have appreciated his contribution to the team for the past three summers,” Central Districts chief executive Pete de Wet said.

“However, ultimately we have considered the balance of our squad and have elected to take a long-range view, planning for the continued success of the Central Stags,” he added.

The left-hander played 131 first-class matches and 178 List A games after which he has 8784 runs with 25 FC centuries and 5592 runs with 11 List A centuries.

“Jesse has been a valuable member of our squad for the past few summers and he started strongly for us last season,” de Wet said. “Notably, he achieved a century in each innings of a first-class match for the second time in his career; and later made a solid contribution to our Ford Trophy campaign.

“We tend to rethink things each year when we get into this situation,” de Wet said. “We have guys coming through in our A programme, playing well in Hawke Cup cricket. It’s been part of our planning for the past four years that we make these guys ready for the step up, and we’ve seen that with guys like Christian Leopard and Willie Ludick. They’re terrific talents, and we’ve decided to focus on those players of the future. Jesse was naturally disappointed by the decision, but we’ve got a limited number of contracts available and it’s just the nature of these things. We’ll be set for another tough conversation with someone next year if the development continues.”

There are two rounds in which teams can contract players and the total of 16 players can be signed up. They are allowed to rope in 10 to 15 players in round 1 and the remaining in round 2 that will be completed on June 30.

Round 1- New Zealand domestic cricket contracts for the 2018-19 season:

Auckland

Jamie Brown, Craig Cachopa, Mark Chapman, Danru Ferns, Michael Guptill-Bunce, Ben Horne, Ben Lister, Matt McEwan, Robbie O’Donnell, Glenn Phillips, Sean Solia, Will Somerville

Canterbury

Chad Bowes, Blake Coburn, Leo Carter, Andrew Ellis, Cameron Fletcher, Andrew Hazeldine, Kyle Jamieson, Ken McClure, Cole McConchie, Stephen Murdoch, Ed Nuttall, Henry Shipley, Will Williams, Theo van Woerkom

Central Districts

Doug Bracewell, Tom Bruce, Josh Clarkson, Dane Cleaver, Greg Hay, Christian Leopard, Willem Ludick, Ryan McCone, Ajaz Patel, Seth Rance, Bevan Small, Ben Smith, Blair Tickner, Ben Wheeler, Will Young

Northern Districts

James Baker, Peter Bocock, Dean Brownlie, Henry Cooper, Anton Devcich, Daniel Flynn, Zak Gibson, Brett Hampton, Nick Kelly, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Bharat Popli, Brett Randell, Tim Seifert, Joe Walker

Otago

Matt Bacon, Warren Barnes, Neil Broom, Mark Craig, Jacob Duffy, Josh Finnie, Shawn Hicks, Anaru Kitchen, Michael Rae, Mitch Renwick, Michael Rippon, Hamish Rutherford, Nathan Smith, Brad Wilson

Wellington

Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lauchie Johns, Iain McPeake, Jimmy Neesham, Ollie Newton, Malcolm Nofal, Jeetan Patel, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Logan van Beek, Luke Woodcock, Peter Younghusband

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