Shane Bond

Shane Edward Bond is a professional New Zealand cricketer who plays for the New Zealand national cricket team. He has played in New Zealand domestic cricket for Canterbury and in English domestic cricket for Warwickshire and has represented New Zealand in One Day Internationals, Test matches and Twenty20 Internationals. He is a right arm fast bowler capable of regularly bowling at speed in maximum of 145 km/h. In the 2001-02 season he broke the 150 km/h barrier. On 20th January 1997 Bond played in his first class debut match for Canterbury against Central Districts. In the 2002 season he played in English county cricket by representing Warwickshire in three county championship games. However he had less success with the ball and in the 2008 season he would return to England and play for Hampshire. In the early 2001/2002 season Bond put up an impressive display for the New Zealand academy against the touring Australian academy and this gave rise to the first opportunity for Bond at the international level as the was selected in the Test squad that would tour Australia. In the second Test he was selected ahead of Chris Martin due to his extra pace and he made his debut. In 2001-02 he took 21 wickets in 9 matches in the VB series against Australia and South Africa and hence he was selected as the “player of the tournament.” In the 2003 Cricket World Cup he continued to bowl excellently and led the New Zealand bowling. In January 2008 it was declared that Bond had signed to participate in the unofficial Indian Cricket League. This has put his international future in peril as the New Zealand Cricket has declared that the selectors would not choose players linked with the league. Due to these changes it was declared that the contract of Bond with the New Zealand Cricket was cancelled. Bond signed for Hampshire the English domestic cricket team on 22nd February 2008.

Major achievements

Shane Bond took 5 wickets for 25 runs as New Zealand was victorious against Australia on 26th January 2002. Shane Bond was named New Zealand cricketer of the year for the 2006/2007 season and the best bowler for that season on 16th May 2007. In September 2007 Bond was named in the ICC’s best performing test side over the past year