Chris Rattue: Twittering cricketers enlighten us all

Jesse Ryder. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Ouch. That hurt.

Scott Styris had a crack at the media via Twitter and in all honesty, please Scott, tell us more.

To recount the story so far ...

Jesse Ryder used the social media site to have a dig at his fellow Wellington batter, the largely unknown Stephen Murdoch, for allegedly running him out against Northern Districts.

New Zealand Cricket's chief executive Justin Vaughan opined, or inferred, that this was perfectly acceptable and preferable to Ryder throwing his bat in anger.

Styris, Ryder's World Cup colleague, advised his mate: "Don't let the idiots get to you bud. The media are the problem, not you."

As far as team-building gestures go, Ryder would be lucky to score nought out of 10 for his attack on Murdoch.

Murdoch, to his credit, has publicly accepted his comrade's barbs with good grace and better than Ryder would, should the booting have been on the other foot, you would surmise.

How will Styris react, you wonder, when Ryder starts smacking him about on Twitter?

Anyway, I digress, and shall further.

When it comes to bat-throwing, the memory says there is a brief moment of satisfaction at the release point, but this quickly subsides into an air of pointlessness as the bat sails through the air, and then humiliation as you trudge off in front of chuckling onlookers to pick up the weapon.

Maybe the tweeting sensations are similar, from that moment when you rip the pads off, slam the gloves into the gear bag, reach for the electronic device and wham, hit the send button.

That will learn young Murdoch, good and proper ... but will it make Ryder feel any better about himself?

What might we learn from this?

The first thing for Styris to learn is that, by going on Twitter, he is the media. That's why it is called the social media. So if we are the problem, then he is the problem.

Secondly, we get an insight into Ryder's personality. He appears self-centred, moody, impulsive and immature. Some of these traits may indeed help his cricket career, others may not.

Thirdly, New Zealand cricket is freaking out about the ramifications should the Black Caps crash at the World Cup, to the point that the chief executive doesn't want to upset star players. Instead of indicating that Ryder is a drongo, Vaughan found the red herring bat-hurling comparison to make. This may actually be very sensible management at this time, considering Ryder's oversensitive nature when it comes to himself and importance to the World Cup cause.

But maybe a quiet word in Ryder's ear, not via Twitter, wouldn't go amiss. We will all lap up honest and incisive analysing of teammates' performances from New Zealand sports stars, something there is a sad lack of. But temper tantrums are a bore.

Fourthly, Daniel Vettori, who in response to the tweeting volleys described Styris as a narcissist, is extremely honest, clear-headed and, as we already know, a class act. So those of us not in the know have learned about Styris.

And finally, Styris has a beef with the traditional media and this has come out in a random way. Out of sheer curiosity, I'd love to know what this beef is.

A final lesson for both Styris and Ryder is that they could make their tweeting a lot more interesting.

Ryder might have recalled the times when he has dropped a catch, or even stayed out too late, to the detriment of other people's careers. He might even have surmised what it is like for a battling domestic player to have his performance publicly slagged by a teammate who is one of the glorious Black Caps. For a man who has needed support, Ryder ain't very good at giving it. And Styris could have analysed his media beef.

If sports stars want to use the social media to get gripes off their chests, go ahead and see if anybody cares. The novelty value will wear off so the players will lose their newly found voice.

For pointers, they should check out the former New Zealand bowler Iain O'Brien. His blogs were revealing, sharp, respectful, humorous and suggested we were hearing from a man who felt incredibly lucky in life.

O'Brien's blog had, I understand, a worldwide following.

* What a disaster Andy Murray turned out to be in the Australian Open tennis final. Thus, what a shock to hear one of the excellent commentators claim it was only a matter of time before the Scot won a Grand Slam title.

On this showing, Murray isn't good enough to be in a final, let alone win a Grand Slam. When he did open up the court against Novak Djokovic, Murray produced lame mid-court shots that the Serbian reached with ease. Murray, who should have been roaring as he chased his first Grand Slam title, looked defeated long before he actually was.

This was a very confusing day for tennis. Murray is ranked at number five in the world and you are left to presume that the brilliant Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are covering up for a lot of ills in men's tennis. I thought a final without either of these two would be good for tennis. Wrong, unfortunately. Murray displayed a staggering lack of fight and finesse.