Cricket: Paceman Bond back with a new spring in his stride

Shane Bond

Shane Bond, the re-engineered, titanium-strengthened New Zealand pace bowler, is feeling hungry for work as he eyes his international comeback in Zimbabwe.

Sidelined from international duty since 2003, Bond was last year repaired with bone grafts and titanium wire, and has been inching towards an international return for the past six months.

The 30-year-old delighted New Zealand Cricket staff after a trouble-free stint in Australia with the national development squad, and yesterday prompted more smiles after pronouncing himself "as ready as ever" for the upcoming tour.

Confidence in his back had returned, the demons of doubt had been driven from his mind, and the focus had now moved away from his injury and on to his need for as much match practice as possible.

"My conditioning is fantastic at the moment, it's just about match play for me now," he said. "As soon as I started getting overs under my belt in Australia, I just felt I was getting stronger and stronger.

"To be honest, I was always confident about my back and just keen to get some game time in. It was a chance to work on getting up to speed.

"That's what I'm needing most right now - match-play."

Bond will depart on Monday with a close to full-strength New Zealand squad, after the selectors were also able to welcome back the previously injured Jacob Oram, Scott Styris and Daniel Vettori.

His inclusion in the first test squad has yet to be settled, but Bond said he was keen to rejoin the action as soon as possible, and believed he would return as a stronger and more persistent paceman.

That was because a boxing-based fitness and strength programme over the period of rehabilitation had left him fitter than ever, and capable of bowling at pace for longer periods.

"I feel far stronger in terms of my stamina and my ability to keep working," he said.

"In the old days I could probably give the skipper five consecutive overs at full steam, maximum. But now I feel I could go for 10, and could come back stronger as well.

"The extra fitness work over the past year has been really paying off."

On the other hand, Bond is a realist and he said he understood how quickly everything could go wrong, particularly when his bowling action was still not ideal and was still likely to create problems.

"I don't think I'm ever going to have the perfect action," he said. "Having looked at myself and understood the areas that I get my power from, I think I'm always going to be putting myself at risk.

"But you try to take care of the fitness, strength and technique side of things as best you can, and you hope for the best."

There have been technical adjustments, of course, and Bond said ensuring he stuck to the new regime and maintained his technical discipline under pressure were among the critical factors in staying fit.

Although the changes were subtle, he said, there was a corresponding danger of falling back into his former bad habits without even realising.

Coach John Bracewell said yesterday that all the advice and reports about Bond in Australia were favourable, and the intention was to now see if he was ready for the next step.

"We will tread fairly carefully but we have a lot of confidence in the progress he made on the development tour," said Bracewell. "We feel he will be ready to play test cricket."

* NEW ZEALAND TO ZIMBABWE

August 4: Practice match, Bulawayo;
August 7-11: v Zimbabwe, 1st test, Bulawayo
August 15-19: v Zimbabwe, 2nd test Bulawayo
August 24: v Zimbabwe, 1st ODI, Bulawayo
August 26: v India, 2nd ODI, Bulawayo
August 29: Zimbabwe v India, 3rd ODI, Harare
August 31: v Zimbabwe, 4th ODI, Harare
September 2: v India, 5th ODI, Harare
September 4: India v Zimbabwe, 6th ODI, Harare
September 6: Final, Harare

* NEW ZEALAND TEST SQUAD

Stephen Fleming (captain), Daniel Vettori (vice-captain), Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Craig Cumming, James Franklin, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent, Paul Wiseman.

* NEW ZEALAND ODI SQUAD

Stephen Fleming (captain), Daniel Vettori (vice-captain), Andre Adams, Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns, Hamish Marshall, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent.

* SHANE BOND

Age: 30
Tests: 10
ODIs: 27
Last test: v Sri Lanka, Kandy, May 3-7
Last ODI: v Pakistan, Dambulla, May 11