By RICHARD BOOCK
There are times when Shane Bond must look forward to overseas tours like a man without water looks forward to a hike across the Kalahari.
The cricketer endowed with the 154km/h right arm has watched just about everything turn in his favour during the past 18 months; everything, that is, except a body that starts overheating at the first sign of rising temperatures.
He wilted during the New Zealand A team's tour of India in 2001, he was hospitalised in Brisbane at the start of last summer's tri-series, struggled at times during the World Cup and vomited on the field during this week's first test in Colombo.
The 27-year-old fast bowler requires frequent attention in hot or humid conditions, and is now tested on the field with temperature probes in the ear to ensure a true core reading of his body.
Bond's plight has led to some suggestions that New Zealand Cricket would be better off holding him back from some overseas tours, in order to protect him from excessive heat-stress problems and to prolong his career.
He wouldn't be the first player to adopt a selective approach to touring.
Sir Richard Hadlee declined to go on some tours to the subcontinent, Ian Botham said he wouldn't send his mother-in-law to Pakistan and England's players were queuing up to pull out of last year's tour to India.
However, New Zealand physiotherapist Dayle Shackel says it was simply a matter of monitoring Bond's condition closely when the mercury was rising, and trying to ensure that the player was sufficiently hydrated.
Bond also uses ice-jackets to beat the heat, as well as hot and cold compressors - that is, a minute-long plunge into a mini-skip filled with ice and water, followed by a minute under a hot shower - and so on.
"I get so hot sometimes," he said. "I just stay in the ice water and don't worry about the hot shower until later."
Former New Zealand swing bowler Shane O'Connor, who understands the difficulties faced by pacemen in the tropics, said he doubted Bond's aversion to heat would lead to him picking and choosing his future tours.
"I don't think it's something he can damage, like a back or a leg or something; so I can't see it cutting his career short or even holding it up," said O'Connor.
"It's difficult for Shane but a lot of people have to overcome challenges to play international sport, and it looks like one of his will be this problem with overheating.
"I'm sure in time he'll learn how best to cope with it and what he needs to do to manage it."
Bond's next assignment will be in tomorrow's second test at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy, where from all accounts the pitch will provide a shade more pace and bounce than those in Colombo.
To support the theory, statistics show that the second most successful bowler at the venue has been Sri Lankan pacemen Chaminda Vaas with 29 dismissals in nine outings, although he has yet to take a five-wicket bag.
However, by far the most destructive influence in Kandy has come from the Sri Lankan spinners and particularly Muttiah Muralitharan, who holds the ground record of 56 wickets, including nine for 51 against Zimbabwe a couple of years ago.
Cricket: Heat puts Bond in a lather
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