SHANE BOND
Shane Edward Bond is a former New Zealand cricketer and coach, described as "New Zealand's best fast bowler since Sir Richard Hadlee", and often among the greatest fast bowlers of his era. He represented New Zealand in Test, ODI and Twenty20 International cricket and played for Canterbury in New Zealand domestic cricket and Warwickshire in English domestic cricket.
Bond was educated at Papanui High School. Before becoming an international player he was a police officer based in Christchurch. Bond made his first-class debut for Canterbury on 20 January 1997, in a match against Central Districts. He was relatively old when he made his first-class debut, at 21 years and 7 months old, and for the first few years of his career he played relatively little first-class cricket, playing only 12 matches for Canterbury in his first three seasons. His bowling figures in his first three seasons were solid but unspectacular. Bond stopped playing cricket professionally for one year after he joined the New Zealand Police in November 1999, which left him no time to pursue his cricket career. He returned to play several games for Canterbury in the 2000/01 season and had reasonable success despite his year off.
Bond was a fast bowler capable of regularly bowling at speeds in excess of 145 km/h. He was first recorded exceeding 150 km/h in the 2001/02 season. In contrast to some other fully fast bowlers, Bond combined pace with control and accuracy, assets which helped him find success in all forms of the game. His fastest recorded delivery was clocked at 156.4 km/h against India in the 2003 World Cup. That he didn't take the easy path said much about his competitive nature; the game always lifted a notch when he had the ball. His athletic action was geared towards inswing and his 150-plus kph efforts meant the ball would swing late. Toe-crushing yorkers were a specialty and he feasted on the world's best batsmen; Ricky Ponting fell to Bond in all of the first six ODIs they played against each other. Bond always lifted against Australia, and it was a sign of his great skill that he took 44 ODI wickets at 15.79 against them. That included a hat-trick in Hobart in 2006-07.
He was handed his first international opportunity early in the 2001/02 season, and from then, due to injuries and international commitments he was mainly unavailable to play for Canterbury, and only appeared in eight State Championship and ten State Shield games in seven seasons. Bond's first chance at international level came early in the 2001/02 season, when, following an impressive display in a match for the New Zealand academy against the touring Australian academy, he received a call-up to the Test squad to tour Australia. His debut came in the Second Test at Hobart when he was chosen ahead of Chris Martin on account of his extra pace.
He had a forgettable debut in a rain-affected match, taking one for 135 in Australia's only innings. He fared little better in the Third Test at Perth, taking two for 154 in the match, which ended in a draw. Shortly thereafter, in the 2001–02 VB Series against Australia and South Africa, he earned a player-of-the-tournament award for taking 21 wickets in nine games.
After the tournament he suffered a foot injury, one of the many that would mar his career, but was back in action for New Zealand's 2002 tour of the West Indies. He was the side's top wicket taker in its first-ever series win in the Caribbean. Bond continued to bowl well, again leading the New Zealand bowling averages at the 2003 World Cup. In a Test match against the West Indies, Bond took 5/69, his fourth 5-wicket haul in just 13 International Tests Matches, and went on to win the man of the match award. He stated that this was one of his best ever bowling efforts. New Zealand defeated the West Indies by 27 runs.
Bond enjoyed strong success against Australia during his career. On 26 January 2002, he bowled New Zealand to victory over Australia, achieving the outstanding figures of 5/25. In the Cricket World Cup, Bond achieved 6/23 again against Australia (New Zealand's best bowling performance in ODIs at the time) which including getting Ian Harvey and Brad Hogg in consecutive deliveries. Shortly after the tournament he suffered a stress fracture in his back, requiring a titanium rod to be inserted. While initially he planned to make a comeback in February 2004, he remained out of the side until August 2005. Bond's remodelled bowling action proved no less lethal than its predecessor, however: in his second match back he took 6/19 runs against India in a blistering solo performance.
In January 2007, Bond took a hat-trick in the last over against Australia in a One Day International at the Bellerive Oval, dismissing Cameron White, Andrew Symonds and Nathan Bracken in successive deliveries, becoming just the second New Zealand player to take a hat-trick in limited-overs international cricket, although the game was still lost by 105 runs. In February 2007, Bond took 5/23, his fourth 5-wicket haul, in the 2007 Chappell–Hadlee Trophy. This enabled New Zealand to dismiss Australia for 149, giving the New Zealanders a 10-wicket victory over them; the Australians' heaviest one day defeat, and although he sat out the final game in the Chappell–Hadlee series, he was instrumental in the eventual 3–0 series win for the first time in Chappell–Hadlee Trophy history.
In September 2009 he wore New Zealand colours once more, during a Twenty20 against Sri Lanka in Colombo. He worked his way back into the Test squad and had enough fuel for one final match-winning performance in the Dunedin Test against Pakistan. An abdominal tear ruled him out midway through the series before he decided to quit Tests and focus on limited-overs cricket. As of August 2017, Bond is the fastest New Zealand Cricketer to take 100 wickets in ODIs. He achieved this feat in 54 matches in January 2007. He is only bettered by Saqlain Mushtaq (53 matches, May 1997) and Mitchell Starc (53 matches, August 2016).
In December 2009, Bond announced his retirement from Test cricket due to the injuries that had been plaguing him for years. He said he wanted to elongate his career in the Limited-Overs formats of the game. He ended his career in Test cricket taking 87 wickets in 18 matches at an average of 22.09 and at a strike rate of 38.7. In May 2010, Shane Bond announced retirement from all international cricket after the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. He is regarded as the best fast bowler to play for Blackcaps after the dominant period of Richard Hadlee.
His international career also suffered a hiatus of 18 months, due to Bond's involvement with the Delhi Giants in the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League during March 2008, which caused the New Zealand cricket board to terminate his central contract in January 2008. However, in June 2009 Bond severed ties with the rebel league and declared himself available to be selected for the national side once again. In January 2010, Bond was selected to play in the 3rd season of the Indian Premier League for the Kolkata Knight Riders. At the auction held for the third season of the lucrative IPL, Shane Bond was one of the main attractions, with his final price being over US$750,000.
Shane Bond was appointed as the bowling coach for New Zealand cricket team in October 2012. He retired from the position after the 2015 Cricket World Cup where New Zealand reached the final. He was widely credited with enhancing the performance of the New Zealand team during his 3-year stint, especially that of Trent Boult and Tim Southee. He became bowling coach of the Mumbai Indians in 2015, and then became commentator for Sky Sports in 2016. Bond became an assistant coach for the Brisbane Heat for the 2015 edition of the Big Bash League, working under head coach Daniel Vettori. In March 2018, he was appointed as head coach for Sydney Thunder.