Saturday 2 February 2008

Bond's name must not be tarnished

Shane Bond, when fit, has been an exhilarating sight. His appearances over six years for New Zealand may have been disappointingly spasmodic, but his pace, guile and one of the best yorkers around ensures he leaves many fine memories for cricket fans. But the lure of the dollar has proved too much, and, because of the ICC's draconian attitude towards those who sign up for the Indian Cricket League, Bond will probably never play for New Zealand again - despite the fact ICL commitments would not prevent him playing for the Kiwis in the forthcoming series with England.

It is a ludicrous situation, and will hit the already depleted New Zealand side extremely hard, but it would be unfair in the extreme to blame Bond. Even in a career that only spanned 17 Tests and 67 ODIs, few could deny his place as the second best Kiwi fast bowler of all time. Yet New Zealand are a small country new to the concept of professional sport; their Test crowds seldom exceed a few hundred. Bond has been the victim of copious injuries during his career - at 32, he cannot be blamed for looking after his earning power, which will be several times greater playing ICL cricket. He also claims he wants to play county cricket too - fitness permitting, there are few more desirable players around.

A charge frequently levelled against performers whose success is only fleeting is that they never proved themselves against the best. With Shane Bond, such an accusation cannot hold. In 11 ODIs against Australia, he has a stunning record: 34 wickets at 13. His havoc-wreaking spells of 5-25 and 4-38 during the 2002 VB series helped to ensure the competition was not lost amidst the sea of one-dayers. But his sensational spell in the 2003 World Cup cemented his reputation, regardless of whether he ever comes near repeating the feat again.

It was in this Super Six game that Bond proved on the world stage that, when fit, he is the consummate fast bowler. He had the height to trouble the world’s best with the bounce he generated. But it was his sheer pace and accuracy in pitching the ball up (he resisted the fast bowler’s temptation to bowl too short) that threw the tournament winners into disarray. Bond’s incredible spell amounted to 6-23 reduced Australia to 84-7.

Owing to Bond's penchant for obtaining injuries and the ICC's stubbornness over banning ICL players - the result chiefly of pressure from the BCCI - he will go down as a cricketing enigma, a man who gave only fleeting examples of his talent. Over the course of his career, though, there has been no finer fast bowler in the world. Bond's averages of 22 in Tests and 19 in ODIs are simply phenomenal in an era of bigger bats and shorter boundaries; he lit up two World Cups with his fusion of pace, aggression and an under-rated cricketing brain. It would be a disgrace if his name is tarnished and he is branded a 'traitor' for doing what any rational man would.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fancy swapping links with www.cricketweb.net ?

Nick Gammons said...

Well said, Tim. Like you I'm a huge fan of Shane Bond and have been frustrated at how little he has played, especially in Tests.

Surely international cricket is foolish to discard such a rare talent? As usual the ICC stands firm on the trivial, while shying away from dealing with the important issues.

Ben Rigby said...

He is a fantastically talented player. If he had not been injured I am sure he would have become one of the all time leading wicket takers.

I don't feel that anyone joining the ICL should have a tarnished name. These people are playing cricket with the ICL to make a stand more than anything. Just like with Kerry Packer.

Eventually the ICC will have to wake up and face the facts.

Ben Rigby said...

p.s. http://thecricketman.blogspot.com is my new blog. I have put a link to your sight. Hope you don't mind!

Ben Rigby said...

Hi Tim, I thought I would add selected articles to third-umpire. But it would be great if you would link to mine too.

Cheers, Ben

Gaurav Sethi said...

Bond must be among the most punned upon cricket players; deepdown he just couldn't take the joke called international cricket. Frail genius.

Anonymous said...

A little off topic, Guys... I have a question. Last week I discovered this site:
[url=http://www.rivalspot.com]Rivalspot.com - Xbox tournaments for money[/url]
They say you can play online NHL game tournaments on any console for cash... had anyone tried that before? Looks like a cool idea...
Are there any other sites where you can play sports games for real moneys? I Googled and found only Bringit.com and Worldgaming.com but it looks these guys don't specialize in sport gamez. Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

The writer of third-umpire.blogspot.com has written a superior article. I got your point and there is nothing to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not disagree with: If you have 4 brands of modems, it will always be the 4th one you choose that actually works in any given PC running Windows 98. I will be back.