Shane Bond: The Tragic Hero

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy
- F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I’m not sure if F. Scott Fitzgerald ever saw cricket in his lifetime. If he did and had lived to see Shane Bond, he would’ve probably added him to the list of heroes for whom he would write a tragedy.

If I have to narrate the Bond tragedy, I have to first narrate the Bond heroics. The heroics that lasted only 18 test matches (87 wickets) and 82 ODIs (147 wickets)– a grave injustice to the talent that he was blessed with. To me, he was New Zealand’s White Lightning, as devastating as the original White Lightning from South Africa. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Bond was the best bowler to come out of New Zealand after Richard Hadlee.

Do you remember the famous line in the movie Jerry Maguire– the one where Dorothy says to Jerry: ‘You had me at Hello!’ If I could, I’d probably say the same to Shane Bond’s bowling. I was awestruck from the first ball he bowled in the VB Series Down Under in 2002 and later the yorker he bowled to Gilchrist at Adelaide claiming his first 5-wicket haul in ODIs.  His debut series was a fast bowling fiesta where AUS-SA-NZ clashed. There were Donald, Pollock, McGrath, Lee & Ntini to compete with and Bond ended up with 21 wickets bagging the Player of the Series Trophy.  Such was his dominance with the ball that 15 of those 21 victims were batsmen in the top 6. He dismissed Ponting four times and Gilchrist twice.

Anyone who saw Bond in that series and in the matches that followed realized that he was a prodigious talent. A smooth run-up, the ability to not only hit the 140+ mark consistently but also swing the ball prolifically, and to produce at free-will that devastating in-swinging yorker.  In the aspiration to create a phenomenon that would be Bond, the man above forgot to gift him the most important ingredient for a pace bowler to sustain himself– a strong body. Bond’s fragile body was his tragedy, his sole undoing.

Bond did not have the best test debut against Australia in 2001 but he blossomed on the West Indies tour in Jun 2002 which NZ won. It was their first and only test win (which led to a series win) on Caribbean soil.  He took 12 wickets that series and followed up with a similar performance against India in the two tests at home. He had the famed Indian batting dancing to his tunes which resulted in a forgettable tour for the Indian team. Watch that destructive spell here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bond’s golden season ended with a fine performance in WC 2003. To no one’s surprise, he ended up with 17 wickets in 8 matches – easily the best bowler for his side and among the top 5 in the tournament. However, his outstanding bowling was let down by some poor batting and NZ failed to make it beyond the Super-6 stage in the tournament. His 6-23 Vs Australia is still among the most talked about performances of the tournament along with Andersen’s 4-29 Vs Pak and Nehra’s 6-23 Vs England. Australia remained undefeated in the tournament and the only time they looked in any serious trouble was against Bond. Watch him rip apart the top Aussie line-up here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While the world was reveling in Bond’s heroics with the ball and salivating at the thought of what the future held for this young man– he was struck with a major career threatening injury in 2003. The stress fracture in his back and feet forced him out of the game for 12 months. He gave up on any thoughts of returning to the game and got employed as a policeman. Slowly and steadily he recovered and returned to the test squad after over two years against Zimbabwe in 2005 with a 10 wicket haul in the 2nd test and raced to the fastest 50 wickets in 12 matches for New Zealand.

Bond continued his steady rise back to the test and ODI arena until he committed the grave mistake of signing up for the Rebel ICL T20 tournament in 2008. As a result, he was banned by the NZ Cricket Board from representing the country in international competitions. Shane Bond had his side to put forth on that occasion.

An excerpt from a Mike Atherton article that appeared in Telegraph:

Bond himself had no complaint publicly with New Zealand Cricket’s decision, only with the subsequent public perception that somehow he had let down his country, that he had put money before honour. He said:

“Some people are always going to think that you’re a traitor and I can live with that. I find it strange, though, that in any other job people accept that you try to improve your circumstances and get in a better position for your family but it’s almost like you’re not supposed to do that in sport.”

Mike Atherton gave a rational account of Bond and his situation in the same article in Feb 2008 summing up perfectly the actions of Boards against their players contracted for ICL. Of Bond’s situation he said,

“Financially he will be better off; international cricket is the poorer. Quick bowlers are a rare commodity.”

And he was probably right because with Bond’s ban, NZ’s performance on the international scene suffered.

Here is a snapshot of New Zealand’s Test & ODI performances with and without Bond.

Bond’s career average in tests was 22 with a strike rate of 38 and in ODIs even more impressive at 21 and 29 respectively. He bowled against the best batsmen of his generatio – Dravid, Sachin, Ponting, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Gayle, Lara and had them in all sorts of trouble at some point or the other. He took 44 of his ODI wickets (that included a hat-trick in 2007 making him only the 2nd New Zealand bowler to achieve this feat after Danny Morrison) against Aus– the best team in that decade and the ones who struggled to get past him. Even the Aussies acknowledge Bond’s greatness.

Ponting when questioned on what New Zealand should do to improve their cricket quipped,  “Just get Shane Bond back”.

Bond’s story is not the story of unfulfilled potential but of a failed body. Apart from the back injury, he suffered from knee and abdominal injuries which further reduced his playing days. A promise of brilliance succumbed to the frailty of his body. His story leaves us often wondering– of what might have been had his body succeeded in overcoming those injuries– what peaks he would’ve conquered, what heights he would’ve scaled, which  greats he would’ve left behind, would he have taken NZ on an ascent, would he have cast his memorable spells on the cricketing world. Questions that we will sadly, never find the answers to.

When he announced his retirement from tests in 2009– it did not come as a surprise to me, it seemed inevitable; the body had taken its toll on what would’ve been a fascinating cricket career. But he left us with this one final strike of 8 against Pakistan in his comeback and last test to cherish for a long time

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Australia and NZ tests series gets underway on Thursday, I realize that I will never get over the pain of not seeing Bond in the NZ side. Some heartbreaks are hard to get over - Bond’s career is one of them. Every time NZ take field, I go hunting on the internet and YouTube to relive the moments Bond left behind– to revisit the era when some of the finest, exemplary pace bowling was on display.

I still miss Shane Bond – he remains the tragic hero of my cricketing era.