David Leggat: Don't put your mortgage on a rekindled Bond

COMMENT

Anyone taking in a spot of talkback on the national sports radio station yesterday could be forgiven for assuming New Zealand's hopes of squaring their test series in England rest on the shoulders of a bloke who hasn't played a test in a year.

But it will take more than a rekindled Shane Bond pacing out his run-up at Leeds in eight days' time for the tourists to arrive at the third test at Trent Bridge next month with the chance of winning the series.

Having arrived in England accompanied by talk of them being New Zealand's best team in years, they fell flat on their collective faces at the game's HQ. The final-day effort by the bowlers at Lord's was desperately ordinary.

Where was the spirit, life and thrust from the faster men? When will Daniel Vettori's cutting edge return?

The batting was spotty, and in some cases plain irresponsible (hands up the usual suspects). Take out Mark Richardson's 194-run double and a gritty 96 from Brendon McCullum and Lord's officials would have been giving their gatekeepers an unscheduled day off.

But if picking Bond for Leeds is viewed as the panacea for the bowling woes consider this:

* He was picked for this tour essentially on trust after his lengthy layoff with a shot back. Sure, he passed medical tests, but there's a ground full of old bowlers who'll tell you the best way to prove your fitness is not in a gym but out in the middle.

* He is already suffering some discomfort.

* He cannot possibly have total confidence in his remodelled action and must have a little voice at the back of his head saying, "Don't go flat out or I'll ping you".

A toned-down, fast-medium version of the formerly express paceman with less than 60 significant overs since his layoff does little to beef up an underpowered attack.

But, staring down a dead-end alley, that's New Zealand's only choice, other than select Kyle Mills (remember him? Woolly-haired bloke who spent most of the South African one-day series playing Russian roulette at the death of the Proteas' innings. He is on the tour, but his only exercise so far has been carrying the drinks around England).

Bond seems to have been around a long time, yet he's played only 10 tests, most recently at Kandy last May, for 43 wickets. Those tests came over an 18-month period since his debut - a 28-0-135-1 slapping at the hands of Ponting, Langer and Hayden at Hobart in November 2001.

The last of his 27 ODIs was in Dambulla, on the same trip to Sri Lanka. But here we are pumping up the Bond-must-play-and-all-will-be-well line.

The problem is that at Lord's, Daryl Tuffey looked flat, Chris Martin seemed to have lost his radar, Jacob Oram was tidy but pedestrian and has a side strain, Chris Cairns was barely used and Vettori, although a shade unlucky, was unable to turn useful final-day conditions to his advantage.

New Zealand owed its longevity in the test to Richardson. So it's tribute time. The 32-year-old is a remarkable cricketer, New Zealand's Meccano man, taken apart, reconstructed from left-arm spinner and No 11 batsman to one of the most redoubtable openers in the game. More power to him.

His 93-101 double took 815 minutes, 37 more than West Indian Brian Lara did for his world record 401. Doesn't matter. Different strokes and all that.

English writers poked the borax at the Auckland lefthander, which was a bit rich for the country which inflicted Geoff Boycott and Chris Tavare on the game.

Former England seamer Mike Selvey, writing in the Guardian, likened watching Richardson at the crease to settling in for an Ingmar Bergman film with a Leonard Cohen soundtrack. Heavy going.

He did add that Richardson "is an admirable cricketer in the same way that Volvos are admirable cars". Reliable, worthy, but not spectacularly sexy, you might say. Fair enough.

Martin Johnson, in the Daily Telegraph, wrote that "after Richardson's [first] innings, extra security bag searches at the gates probably uncovered nothing more sinister than hardback novels and knitting patterns".

Yet former England medium pacer Angus Fraser in the Independent was probably closest to the mark.

"He is the type of player his team-mates adore. Fast bowlers love a good blocker because it is wonderful to sit in the dressing-room after a day and a half in the field knowing that there is little chance of you fielding again for quite some time."

The way back into the series for Stephen Fleming's team is actually pretty uncomplicated: buck up your ideas, get more runs, take more wickets, pull your weight and don't pin your hopes on the Meccano Man and the Comeback Kid.