Dead cockatoo made me do it, says Bracewell

WELLINGTON: New Zealand cricketer Doug Bracewell has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service for a third drink-driving offence after blaming the killing of a pet cockatoo by dogs for his decision to drive home drunk from a function.

The 26-year-old fast bowler was pulled over by police in March and returned a blood-alcohol reading more than three times the legal limit.

His lawyer told the Hastings District Court that Bracewell had been drinking at a function when his girlfriend called him in distress after their cockatoo was killed by dogs they were minding for a friend, the local newspaper Hawke’s Bay Today reported yesterday.

Judge Bridge Mackintosh also disqualified him from driving for a year and said the 27-Test cricketer had let himself, his family and New Zealand Cricket down.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said they would not impose any additional penalty.

“NZC notes Mr Bracewell suffered a serious leg injury in February and is unlikely to resume his competitive cricket career until next summer,” local media quoted the organisation as saying in a statement.

“Under these circumstances, and considering the penalty imposed in the Hastings District Court today, NZC will be taking no further punitive action.”

Bracewell, who has also played 14 one-day internationals and 14 Twenty20 internationals, was previously caught drink driving in 2008 and 2010 and has been involved in a string of alcoholfuelled incidents.

He was banned for a match in 2012 after he and former New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder were involved in an altercation with a person at a Napier bar while out drinking.

A year later he was ruled out of the first Test against England in Dunedin after he cut his foot when stepping on glass during a clean-up for a party at his house.

In 2014, he was fined after another late night out drinking with Ryder before a Test against India. Reuters