Cricket: An uncommon Bond

Shane Bond

Tours like those to Zimbabwe are often referred to as 'average boosters' and the mocking statement, once applied to tours of New Zealand by the MCC, refers to batsmen plundering weak attacks.

But the chief benefactor of this two-match series, which could never be referred to as a 'test' in the true sense of the word, has not been a batsman.

Yes, Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming have pushed closer to the coveted 40 runs per innings standard that through some unwritten cricketing diktat shuffles you from good test batsman to very good in the space of .01 of a run.

Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum, too, have added to their reputations as allrounders rather than handy lower-order batsmen.

But it is Shane Bond who has stolen a march on everybody, including the man most Christchurch schoolboys his age wanted to emulate when he was growing up - Sir Richard Hadlee.

He might be a mere 375 test wickets behind the knight of the realm but he has a few stats Hadlee can't claim: the fastest New Zealand bowler to 50 test wickets, beating Chris Martin's 13 tests by one; the fourth best strike rate since WWII of bowlers getting to 50 wickets (a wicket every 38.6 balls); and a runs-per-wickets average that has dipped below 22.

Hadlee finished with a superb bowling average of 22.3 and only once did he dip into the 21s, reaching 21.99 after a four-wicket haul against India at Wankhede Stadium in 1988. Bond's average now stands at 20.8.

Obviously the comparisons are unfair. Hadlee never bowled at Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, and he played over 15 years rather than the fleeting visits to the bowling crease Bond's back has allowed him. But Hadlee backs Bond to keep taking wickets at startling rates.

"There's no reason why he can't," he said. "He bowls with real pace and moves the ball so he'll keep getting good batsmen out."

Hadlee, who took 431 test wickets, said the return of Bond was the most pleasing aspect of a series which was never able to reach any heights, saying you could see "how much he adds to the attack".

The changes in Bond's action were clear for Hadlee to see, in particular his modified front leg action to stop him having to "muscle the ball through to get his pace", which put incredible strain on his back.

Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming, who has no doubt been pining at first slip for the past two years, had this to say: "We tried not to make too much of it while Shane was out," he said. "We've gone through some series and kept our mouths shut, knowing we were missing possibly one of the greatest bowlers to play for New Zealand."

If you want an indication of just how difficult it is to get a bowling average below 22, consider this: of 'modern' bowlers who have played in the era of covered wickets, only Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath have managed it.

Bond will be the first to admit he has some way to go before he joins that pantheon, or can even be considered in the same breath as Hadlee, but he has displayed some technical aspects to his bowling in Zimbabwe from which other parallels between the two can be drawn.

"I feel like I'm in better condition now. I'm fitter, stronger, and a smarter cricketer," Bond said following his first bag of 10 in a test last week.

He is not trying to bowl quickly all the time. Hadlee realised he would not play far past 30 unless he lost a few yards off his run-up and attacked the stumps rather than the batsman. Bond, who has late inswing whereas Hadlee swung the ball predominantly away from the right-handers before ripping an off-cutter back, is doing something similar.

Bond, as yet, does not appear to have a leg-cutter or something similar that can act as a counter to his inswing but he has shown if he can learn to bowl as well as he has with a new back and a slightly different action, it can't be far away.

But Hadlee, the selection panel manager, cautions against over-burdening Bond.

"We can't expect him to play in every test and every one-dayer," he warned, saying it was still important to build real depth in the bowling stocks with Jacob Oram, Daryl Tuffey and a rejuvenated Ian Butler in the vanguard.