In addition to his remarkable talent, Shane Bond was a quick, terrifying, and frustratingly frail athlete who would be remembered for his bad luck with injuries. Bond was New Zealand’s finest fast bowler in the post-Hadlee era, but ended up missing more games than he played. Shane ‘James’ Bond turned 48 years old today, on June 7.
Sometimes it seemed as though Bond’s occasional cricket matches were interfering with his downtime rather than his profession being interrupted by injuries. The most significant was a back issue in 2003 that forced him to miss nearly two years of work and required a titanium wire-fusing operation to fuse his spine.
Although Bond had several problems with his knees, foot, and other bodily parts, his desire to play was unwavering. He was unwilling to ease off on the intensity, which contributed to some of the problems. Had he been content to slow down and take things more slowly, he might have played more cricket.
Shane Bond is currently employed by Mumbai Indians as their bowling coach
The Christchurch native only participated in 120 games for New Zealand, but his influence on the sport has elevated him to the level of great cricketers. In his nearly ten-year international career, which came to a conclusion in 2010 following the 2010 T20 World Cup, he claimed 259 wickets. For the sake of advancing his profession, Bond has previously stated that he was unwilling to lower his standards.
The speedster scalped 87 wickets total at an average of 22.09 in 18 Tests, 147 at 20.88 in 82 ODIs, and 25 at 21.72 in 20 T20Is. In the CWC 2003 match against Australia, Bond’s best-ever spell (6/23) eliminated the top order and contributed to his team’s victory. Bond, who became the fourth-fastest to reach 100 ODI wickets, is currently coaching the young group of bowlers for the five-time IPL winner Mumbai Indians.
Four years later, he assisted New Zealand in reaching the World Cup semifinals before joining the ICL and being banned from international cricket for two years. He resurfaced in the latter part of 2009 with sufficient stamina for one more match-winning performance against Pakistan in Dunedin, but within a year he had given up all forms of the game after his body had had enough.