Thursday 24 December 2009

Shane Bond Breaks The Test Bond!!!

Well this post is not directed towards praising the New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond despite deserving to take home some applause. One can just pity Shane Bond for not having made a grand exit from his international cricket career. Had Shane Bond made up his mind, he could have taken his fast bowling career far more to the extent where the New Zealand great Sir Richard Hadlee had. Shane Bond was hardly found giving a serious thought to cricket which should have been played as a sport. But, Shane Bond mistook cricket to be a business than a sport.

Shane Bond was attracted by the cash rich ICL which was not at all serious in its business and I bet no one would have voted in Shane Bond's favor for nodding his head for ICL. Finally, as it is evident, ICL lost and so did Shane Bond. He was one time (somewhere during the 2003 world cup held at South Africa) seen as the third fastest bowler in world cricket after Shoaib Akthar and Brett Lee. It is not an undisputed issue regarding the way Shoaib Akthar bowled the world's fastest ball with a bent arm. And though Brett Lee has no complaints, still, Brett Lee has not been successful in convincing people with his amazing speeds.

Fortunately, the world finally got a breakthrough when Shane Bond made it to the big stage. But, the world has hardly seen this so called fast bowling ace who finally called it a day from tests a couple of days ago. If one goes by his career stats, Shane Bond made his test debut in 2001, at the age of 26, when people get into the scene at the age of 20. Alright! This is no big issue. Someone like Mike Hussey got into the international arena at the age of 30+ which is greater than 26. Shane Bond is one such bowler to have made his test appearance earlier than his ODI debut.

And surprisingly, Shane Bond is also one of the very few cricketers who have bid adieu to test cricket before calling off from the shorter versions of the game. Of course, Glenn McGrath quit tests after the fifth Ashes test in 2006 and ended his ODI stint after the world cup. May be that, had there been no such mega event, McGrath would have quit ODIs sooner. This is not the case with Shane Bond. Despite having the ability to make it big, Shane Bond's test career lasted just 18 test matches long in the 8 year career that Bond has had. It is our fortune that atleast for a flash of moment, someone like Shane Bond was seen striking the ball at lightning speeds.

1 comment:

Fred said...

Sadly, we only see a glimpse of all that he had to offer. He could have been one of the all-time greats.