Butler did it, despite the odds
Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey last hunted as a pack together in Barbados in 2002
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey last hunted as a pack together in Barbados in 2002. Nine years later they are back together as a fast-bowling unit, representing their country in Sri Lanka. NZPA's Chris Barclay looks at where Butler has been in the meantime.
Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler. While Bond's list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler's inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations. New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne's Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.
He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while 'drugged up' before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler's words: "Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong." Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of years trying to specialise as a batsman but his cricketing preference kept gnawing away.
In the Hindustan Times, Anand Vasu explains why New Zealand have benefitted the most from BCCI's amnesty offer to ICL players.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here