Ugh, the media disgust me. A few Quotes hidden in between the headline and the general knife twisting theme of the article:
Police are adamant alcohol was not behind the "altercation" that took place just before Ryder was viciously attacked outside Aikmans bar early yesterday morning.
While they would not speculate on what else may have motivated the attack, they said it was not alcohol fuelled.
But this attack was not due to Ryder drinking alcohol.
Peter Clinton of Cricket Wellington said Ryder had not violated the conditions of his contract by consuming alcohol.
He confirmed there were alcohol "protocols" set for the team, as there was with many professional sports teams in New Zealand.
"My understanding of the events is that those protocols were being met."
First he gets kicked while he was down by some thugs at a bar, now he is getting kicked while he is down by the media. Disgusting.
And as for "Surely something like this cannot be unprovoked", that is massively untrue. I've been attacked a couple of times, and done absolutely nothing to provoke it. The last time all I did was walk into the bathroom, got hit, then the toilet door barged open a few times as I hid in there. I won in the end though...He said he was going to bash it down with his head....So I put my back against the door, and my legs braced against the wall. He hit the door with his head and it didn't move...he looked very worse for wear when I walked out...
I also imagine if you were something of a celebrity, that it'd be more likely to happen unprovoked. I'm not claiming to know what happened, but maybe we shouldn't assume things.