Shane Bond

Shane Edward Bond (born 7 June 1975) is a New Zealand cricket coach and former cricketer and present bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals, described as "New Zealand's best fast bowler since Sir Richard Hadlee", and often among the greatest fast bowlers of his era.

He represented New Zealand in Test, ODI and Twenty20 International cricket and played for Canterbury in New Zealand domestic cricket and Warwickshire in English domestic cricket.

Bond made his first-class debut for Canterbury on 20 January 1997, in a match against Central Districts.

He was relatively old when he made his first-class debut, at 21 years and 7 months old, and for the first few years of his career he played relatively little first-class cricket, playing only 12 matches for Canterbury in his first three seasons.

His bowling figures in his first three seasons were solid but unspectacular.

Bond stopped playing cricket professionally for one year after he joined the New Zealand Police in November 1999, which left him no time to pursue his cricket career.

He returned to play several games for Canterbury in the 2000/01 season and had reasonable success despite his year off.

Since his debut in the 2001/02 season, he only managed to appear in 18 Test matches for New Zealand before he retired from Test cricket in December 2009 at the age of 34.

He was handed his first international opportunity early in the 2001/02 season, and from then, due to injuries and international commitments he was mainly unavailable to play for Canterbury, and only appeared in eight State Championship and ten State Shield games in seven seasons.

He made a brief appearance in English county cricket in the 2002 season, representing Warwickshire in three County Championship games, finding moderate success with the ball.

A right-arm fast bowler, his fastest recorded delivery was clocked at 156.4 km/h against India in the 2003 World Cup.

Bond's career was plagued with injuries, chiefly recurring stress fractures of the back.

He had surgery in 2004 to try to prevent further injury, but it was only partially successful.

In later years he suffered back problems, knee injuries and an abdominal tear.

These problems, in conjunction with a late start to his fully professional cricket career, limited his appearances in both international and domestic cricket.

His international career also suffered a hiatus of 18 months, due to Bond's involvement with the Delhi Giants in the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League during March 2008, which caused the New Zealand cricket board to terminate his central contract in January 2008.

He returned to England to play a few matches for Hampshire in the 2008 season.

In his Indian Cricket League career, Bond appeared in seven Twenty20 games for the Delhi Giants during the March/April 2008 version of the league, but had little success, only taking two wickets at 86.50.

In January 2008, while recovering from an injury sustained on tour in South Africa, it was announced that Bond had signed to play for the unofficial Indian Cricket League.

This jeopardised his international future, as just a few days earlier New Zealand Cricket had announced that selectors would be encouraged not to select players associated with the league.

As a result, at the end of the month, it was announced that Bond's contract with New Zealand Cricket had been terminated, as the International Cricket Council (ICC) prohibited contracted players from taking part in the ICL.

Bond wrote in his book that he had no regret in playing for the ICL and stated that initially New Zealand cricket assured him he would still be able to represent New Zealand.

He stated that the reason he defected was the fact that while New Zealand were giving good money it would not be enough to guarantee the future of his family once his cricket career would be over.

Therefore, he earned money from the ICL which would guarantee his family's future.

He also stated that he had no regrets and that he was a "victim of politics" because he defected.

On 22 February 2008, Bond signed for English domestic cricket team Hampshire.

Bond played four County Championship matches for the club, taking 19 wickets at a bowling average of 19.21, with best figures of 7/66 which came on debut against Sussex.

This was one of Bond's two five-wicket hauls for the club.

However, in June 2009 Bond severed ties with the rebel league and declared himself available to be selected for the national side once again.

Once he terminated his contract with the ICL in June 2009 he returned to international cricket.

In May 2009, the Indian Cricket League announced that several players had been released from their contracts, and in June Bond confirmed to New Zealand Cricket that he had severed ties with the unofficial league, effectively making himself available to be selected for the national team.

He was duly awarded a central contract for the 2009/10 season.

In January 2010, Bond was selected to play in the 3rd season of the Indian Premier League for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

On 13 May 2010 he retired from all forms of the game and did not play in the 4th season of Indian Premier League.

Brydon Coverdale on ESPNcricinfo described him as New Zealand's best fast bowler.

Bond currently has the second best bowling strike rate of all time in Test match cricket (amongst bowlers who have bowled a minimum of 2,500 deliveries), behind George Lohmann.

Bond was educated at Papanui High School.

He is married to Tracey Bond and is the father of three children.

Before becoming an international player he was a police officer based in Christchurch.

He is a nephew of Sir Mark Solomon, chairman of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.