KEY POINTS:
Injured allrounder Jesse Ryder had one eye on the cricket and the other eye on his future.
The burly lefthander tracked his progress in the second overseas player auction on Friday, knowing full well that a favourable outcome would help set him up for life.
At 7.26pm on
Friday the news he wanted to hear flashed up on the screen at his mate Robbie Bird's place - he was going to the Bangalore Royal Challengers for US$160,000 a year ($300,000), some $60,000 dollars above his base price of $100,000.
For that he can thank Stephen Fleming's Chennai Super Kings, who trumped Bangalore's opening bid and forced the franchise to go higher.
For Ryder, the process was every bit as nerve-racking as waiting to bat in a test match.
"I was sweating bullets," Ryder said, "waiting to see what was going to happen. I was pretty nervous."
When the Herald on Sunday caught up with Ryder yesterday he was at the local park with manager Aaron Klee. The weather was decent but that's not what he meant when he said, "It's a nice day all right".
It's a nice destination for Ryder, too, although he concedes he knows nothing of the city and will be spending a bit of time on the internet learning about the place.
New Zealand Cricket will also be pleased he landed somewhere with an established Kiwi presence. Ross Taylor, another Masterton old boy, will be asked to help immerse Ryder into the team.
"I'm pleased," said Daniel Vettori. "I think it will make him a lot easier, a lot more comfortable. He's a shy guy, Jesse, so for him to be lumped into a situation where he doesn't know anyone and to not know what was expected of him would have been quite hard. Ross will be there and they've known each other for a long time so the settling in process will be a lot easier for him."
There is no question of Ryder spending his new-found riches frivolously. There'll be no Hummer appearing in the garage over the next couple of days, mainly because there is no garage yet.
"It'll be going straight into the bank," Ryder said. "It's about time I started looking for a house to buy."
Kyle Mills, fresh from another outstanding performance in the second Chappell-Hadlee ODI, was also picked up. He will play for Sachin Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians after they met his base price of $150,000.
If you needed further evidence that the IPL, and its unseemly cattle auction, was skewing cricketing reality, look no further than the fact Mills, ranked as one of the best limited overs bowlers in the world, secured $150,000 per year while Bangladesh's Mashrafe Mortaza, despite having a base price of just $50,000, went to the Kolkata Knights Riders for $600,000. Little-known South African allrounder Tyron Henderson must also be pinching himself after winning a $600,000 pay day from the Rajasthan Royals.
Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen both secured record-breaking $1.55 million contracts - with the Chennai Super Kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers respectively - while JP Duminy admitted he was gobsmacked by the $950,000 pricetag Mumbai put on him.
It is not all fun and fiscal madness though. New Zealand Players' association manager Heath Mills, brother of Kyle, said he remained concerned that of 80 international players involved in the IPL, only seven were New Zealanders (eight including Chennai coach Stephen Fleming).
With New Zealand's comparatively low wages for cricketers, that leaves them vulnerable to offers from the "rebel" ICL.
"It's very important that we, NZCPA and New Zealand Cricket, work hard with the IPL to increase the opportunities for New Zealanders in that competition. You look at the list of those players and there are a lot of domestic cricketers from other countries involved who are not as good as some of our internationals.
"I really feel for guys like Tim Southee, James Franklin and Jeetan Patel. Those are class players who deserve to be involved."
But those wider issues won't be concerning Ryder at the moment. His only worries are his continued rehabilitation from the drinking issues that have twice blighted his short international career and his recovery from a shoulder injury that has seen the tendon around the rotator cuff become inflamed.
"I'll pick up a bat on Wednesday and hopefully have a full net on Friday. If that goes well I'll look to play some club cricket next weekend."
