Cricket: Ryder outburst not hanging offence - Currie

Jesse Ryder was fined for his outburst in September. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The man on the end of Jesse Ryder's dressing-room tirade in South Africa spoke out yesterday - and New Zealand Cricket will hope manager Dave Currie's words are the last on the issue.

Batsman Ryder let fly in the changing room in Johannesburg after suffering an adductor strain batting against Sri Lanka at the Champions Trophy on September 27, earning a misconduct hearing and subsequent fine.

But New Zealand team manager Currie, silent on the subject until yesterday, made it clear he's looking ahead and wants the topic shut.

The Herald understands Ryder was initially charged with serious misconduct, which could have resulted in the scrapping of his contract, before it was scaled down.

Yesterday New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said the incident in South Africa didn't warrant invoking the "serious" part of the misconduct scale, and Currie agreed.

"Firstly I'd agree it wasn't a hanging offence," Currie, chef de mission of New Zealand's Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams, said.

"Clearly he was a bit grumpy and we felt we had to take some action round that. We have, it's been dealt with and we're looking forward to having him back."

Asked if any other member of the New Zealand back-room staff had been involved in the dressing room bustup, Currie was tightlipped: "I've no comment around that". But he said he and Ryder "are fine" and said the player had accepted his behaviour had been out of order.

"You would hope not to have that behaviour, but you have to accept cricket is emotional," Currie said.

"The other side of the coin is you don't want bland, unemotional, blah - and not be pissed off about getting out either - so it is a balance."

Ryder suffered the injury early in his innings but went on to hit a rapid 74 before smashing a chair with his bat as he left the playing field, in front of Currie. An angry outburst followed in the changing room.

Currie, who has been manager since late last summer, rubbished the notion that the story was "any great event". "I don't know that it was in-house, or secret," he said, raising the question that if that had been so why it had not been made public at the time. "All the team knew about it, all the support staff knew about it and half the people at the ground knew.

"I don't get the drama. Clearly it happened, we dealt with it and it's gone." There was no physical exchange and it was not "anything of a substance we should all get excited about".

Ryder is ruled out of the three-test series against Pakistan by the injury but is expected to be back in the frame when Bangladesh arrive for the second of three international series this summer, early in February.