Cricket: Shane Bond

When Shane Bond announced his retirement from test cricket this week, it brought to an end a career that despite lasting eight years, only saw him play 18 matches, and never saw him fulfil his considerable talent, arguably through no fault of his own.

After a slow start to his professional career, only emerging after a stint as a policeman, Bond burst onto the international scene against Steve Waugh’s dominant Australia side in 2001-02, and immediately showed that he had the pace and class to be a match-winner against the best batting line-up in the world, as the Kiwis shocked their hosts and the South Africans in the one-day series. It was largely the same story whenever he took the field for his country, as Bond was arguably the premier fast bowler in the world when active, in a decade when there was ultimately a distinct lack of genuine pace bowlers of real quality. Witness his 6 for 22 against the Australians in the 2003 World Cup, a tournament they otherwise dominated, or his 13 wickets in the 2007 tournament.

Bond bowling in the 2007 World Cup: an all too rare sight

Nonetheless, his chances of making a lasting impression on the game were ultimately stymied by injuries and politics. Injuries largely removed him from international cricket from 2003 to 2005, and following a successful comeback against Zimbabwe that year, taking 13 wickets at 9.23, including 10 for 99 in the second test, he was again injured for another nine months. Various other injuries restricted him until 2008 when he signed up with the rebel Indian Cricket League, recognising that his was never going to be a long career, and that he needed to gain what financial security he could from it. Pressure from the Indian board (BCCI) meant that he was excluded from appearing for New Zealand throughout this time, a ludicrous position which deprived cricket fans around the world from seeing arguably the best fast bowler of the era in his prime.

Released by the ICL, Bond returned to New Zealand colours this year, and after another match-winning appearance against Pakistan, taking 5 for 107 and 3 for 46 in a 32 run win, he broke down again, and like Andrew Flintoff, came to the realisation that his body was not up to the rigours of test cricket.

Bond celebrates a wicket against Sri Lanka

Bond will continue to play limited overs cricket for his country, and will hopefully showcase his talent on that stage for a few more years, but it is sad that the best years of his talent were lost to injury, and absurd that nearly two of them were lost in order to protect the commercial interests of the BCCI. Perhaps the saddest fact of all is that no-one appeared to be protecting the best interests of Shane Bond, the New Zealand team, or cricket fans around the world.