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When cricket "bad boy" Jesse Ryder's father walked out of his life a decade ago, he'd already made a substantial impression on his teenage son.
Cricket-loving Peter Ryder had taken it upon himself to teach his infant son the gentleman's game using a ping-pong, golf ball and a stick.
And when Jesse was about 14, and his father moved to Australia to start a new life, cricket had grown to become his greatest passion in life. When not on the cricket field, Ryder was on the PlayStation version.
But it appears Ryder picked up more from his father than just a passion for cricket - he also inherited his liking for a drink.
Away from cricket, the naturally shy young man, described by some as a loner, came to use alcohol as a social lubricant.
"Jesse doesn't need a beer. It's more the thing that it relaxes him and he can chill out around people," says his long-time friend Craig Findlay.
"If you went up to him and you don't know him, you don't get anything out of him."
Soon after his breakthrough to the New Zealand cricket team this year, it has been the talented batsman's penchant for alcohol which almost cost him his cricketing dream.
After bringing shame and injury on himself, Ryder must now start on a difficult path to healing both his body and his reputation in the eyes of the New Zealand public.
But the loyal band of supporters of this often-misunderstood cricketer are determined he will make it.
"Knowing Jesse, it may well be just what's needed to get Jesse to understand where he wants to go in life," Findlay says.
"Sometimes you need a massive setback like this to take stock of where you are."
For Ryder, the recent incidents are just the latest in a string of alcohol-fuelled or ill-disciplined events that have taken the shine off this prodigious talent.
Born in Masterton, Ryder moved with his father to Napier as a boy after his parents separated. Peter Ryder wanted to get his son some better schooling and more competitive cricket.
Peter, a competent club cricketer, "enjoyed a drop", as most sportspeople in the 1980s and 90s did, Findlay says.
His father leaving to go overseas took its toll on Ryder.
"It's got to be tough without a father figure," says Ryder's flatmate and friend BJ Crook.
"We talk to him about it quite a bit. Him and his dad have got a different relationship than you'd normally expect."
Ryder's mother, Heather, wanted him to go back to Masterton to live with her, but Ryder preferred to stay in Napier to play cricket.
So he was taken in by family friends Toro Brown and Diane Ransom, and lived with them for four-and-a-half years.
Toro Brown says Ryder was always a loner and not one to talk about his problems.
"He was a closed shop. He was the type of kid that tried to work out his problems by himself."
At Napier Boys High, Ryder was known as a hugely talented sportsman who did things his own way.
But principal Ross Brown does not remember Ryder as a troublemaker.
"As a high school kid he didn't have a disciplinary record at all. Jesse's always been his own person. He's a very self-contained fellow, and that's good in some respects, and it makes life difficult for him in others."
Ross Brown recalls one occasion when Ryder was playing as a colt in a school exchange, and cricket caps were on offer.
"I remember Jesse saying 'How much are they?' I said they're $13, but if you get 50 (runs), I'll give it you. And I think on that day he got 80. So he was very confident in his cricketing ability, and sometimes that can be misconstrued out of the sporting performance area."
When he visited his old school recently, the staff knew better than to ask Ryder to speak, and instead sent him straight to the cricket nets to do what he did best "and the boys just loved it".
After his schooling, Ryder went on to play representative cricket for Central Districts, where he was once suspended as an under-19 player for arriving home too late.
He moved to Wellington in 2004 and found a close circle of friends in the NaeNae cricket club.
Mr Crook, a NaeNae teammate, says it's club tradition to drink after games and Ryder enjoyed that part of life.
"Jesse does like to have a drink. At times he will get worse off than others, but who hasn't?"
When Ryder returns to Wellington today for a friend's 21st birthday party, he will be well aware what he needs to do.
"More than likely he will be taking the keys for a few months and driving us around for a bit."
Even after making it into the Black Caps, Findlay believes Ryder did not really know "where and what he was".
"I think he just wanted to continue to just be Jesse. The relaxed guy who enjoyed things, went out and played cricket.
