Lucky to be alive, New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder set for return
Surviving an assault and serving a doping ban, NZ batsman is ready for the top level again
Batsman Jesse Ryder will return to top-level cricket in New Zealand on Sunday, ready to put behind him a year in which he served a six-month doping ban and survived an assault that left him in a coma with serious head injuries.
The 29-year-old, who had been in self-imposed exile from the New Zealand team following another breach of team discipline, makes his return to the field for his new first-class side Otago against his former team Wellington in a four-day match.
"After this year, you could probably say that I've been through the worst things you could go through, for my career at least anyway," Ryder said.
"The drug thing, that could have been my career over if I'd been given a two-year ban, which had been a possibility. Then with what happened in Christchurch, that too could have easily been the end of it for my career.
"I wouldn't look at it like I've been given a second chance at life. I'm just lucky, I guess."
Ryder spent almost a week in hospital in March after an incident outside a Christchurch bar left him with a fractured skull and rib injuries. He was in an induced coma for more than two days.