KEY POINTS:
Shane Bond has terminated his contract with New Zealand Cricket, probably ending his international career to play for the rebel Indian league.
NZC announced today that it had told Bond it could not release him to play in the Indian league (ICL) and he had decided to pull out of his NZC contract.
"Bond has been sympathetic to NZC's situation. Despite his playing agreements allowing him to continue playing for the Black Caps, and the ICL agreement only requiring his services when international commitments allow, he has decided in the best interests of NZC to terminate his playing agreement. This has occurred by mutual consent," NZC said in a statement.
Bond said in the statement: "I have taken immense pride in playing for the Black Caps. I believed I could continue to do so for the term of my contract while also taking up the ICL opportunity.
"Given what has happened, I want to do the right thing by NZC, so at their request I have terminated my contract. I will continue to be available to play for the Black Caps and look forward to doing so once again when NZC deems this appropriate."
Bond wanted to continue playing for the Black Caps on a per-game basis, but NZC has kept in line with an agreement with other test-playing boards not to pick players associated with the rebel league.
As a result, they will not consider Bond for either national or "A" team duty, and the Black Caps will be without their main strike-bowler when they line up against England, who arrive in New Zealand today for five one-day internationals followed by three tests.
Bond will be the seventh New Zealand player to be effectively banned because of his links to the rebels, but his absence will be the most telling for New Zealand, with most of the others retired from international play at the top level.
The 32-year-old has played in only 17 tests in an injury-plagued seven years but has still taken 79 wickets, while in one-dayers his 125 wickets came at an average of 19.32.
