Media Training advice for NZ Cricket

NZ Cricket made one major media training mistake when announcing their response to yet another Jesse Ryder drinking incident. Team manager Mike Sandle handled the media well during the announcement, but there was one notable absence from the event. Ryder himself. This is a common media training mistake. Because Ryder was not there to answer questions and give journalists their pound of flesh, the story will stay alive until the man himself comments. This is unfortunate because New Zealand cricket will be wanting the focus on the South African tour, not the off-field antics of one player. This is why the Tiger Woods media scrum continued for so long. If he had fronted up, laid all his dirty laundry on the table on day one, the story would have died a lot earlier than it did. I'm not saying this situation is the same and Ryder necessarily has dirty laundry, but my media training advice to him and New Zealand cricket is to front up as soon as possible. Ryder will turn out for Wellington next Friday and because he was not available yesterday, there is likely to be a media scrum at that game. That means the story will stay alive all week and detract from next week's game and the South African tour. Media Training is not something used by many sports people or organisations, but it can do wonders for the profile and image of both players and their sports.