Cricket: Bond eyes Aussies

Shane Bond

Injured speedster Shane Bond is targeting a comeback against Australia in March. The most scrutinised back in sport is being put through its paces at New Zealand Cricket's High Performance Centre and Bond said it was a case of so far, so good.

"I'm bowling three times a week at the moment," Bond said. "I bowled six-and-a-half overs today [Friday] and am still working on a few refinements on my technique. That's the hardest thing to do, getting the changes ingrained so they become second nature. I'm probably about 90 per cent there and it's coming out all right, so I'm reasonably pleased," he said.

Bond's stress fracture to his lower vertebrae has stemmed from a "counter-rotational" action, where the swivel in his hips and shoulders haven't worked in unison.
Under the guidance of Ashley Ross and Dayle Hadlee, and using the same bio-mechanic tool employed to analyse controversial spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's action, four components of Bond's action have been targeted for change.

Chief among them is eradicating his tendency to dive in late to the bowling crease. "I need to eliminate that as much as I can," he said. "The rest of it is basically trying to get my hips and shoulders working together so everything is working on one plane.

"I've really gone back to the drawing board, I suppose, and have broken things down. For me, who wants to be a coach, it's been an interesting exercise. You realise that some things, like a fault in your delivery stride, can stem way back to the start of your run-up.

"It's a matter of getting comfortable with those four changes and I'm pretty close to that now."

At this stage all Bond's work is being done indoors, so he can set markers down and work off those. He is still playing for his club team in Christchurch, High School Old Boys-Collegians, but as a batsman only.

He is aiming to start bowling some competitive overs in January before a late bid for selection for the Australian series in March.

"That's the plan so far but, if things don't progress as I want, I can delay it.

"If things go perfectly, I'd like to be available for that series," said Bond, adding that it was still too far away to predict confidently that he would be ready.

Bond wants to come back into the less stressful one-day game, but does not want to limit himself to that form of the game in the long-term.

"As a bowler I find it harder, and become more susceptible to injury, when I stop bowling. Once you get going and things are going well, you almost want to keep bowling all year round. The problem with one-day cricket is that over the space of a season in New Zealand it's crammed into one month.

"And to be fair, I'm probably too competitive to just play the one form of the game and, for me, test cricket is the real form of the game."

New Zealand could use him too. It is probably no coincidence that New Zealand's slump in the five-day game has happened during Bond's absence.

It remains to be seen if Bond, who will carry two screws and some titanium wire wrapped around his vulnerable vertebrae with him on to field, can retain his pace.

If he can't, it won't be through lack of trying.

"My surgeon has told me I won't be bionic man now he's done the operation," Bond said, "it's just up to me to get fit and strong. I've trained really hard and if it doesn't work out, then I can live with that."