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.