New Zealand’s bowling attack is expected to be revived under the guidance of Bond
Former New Zealand pace bowler Shane Bond has been named as the national team’s new bowling coach.
Bond, who replaced Damien Wright for the position, retired from international cricket just over two years ago and has been studying to become a coach.
Bond noted that he would be interested in becoming the bowling coach of the Black Caps a couple of months ago, and now that he is, the national team will be relying on him to use his experience and expertise in pace bowling to transform the New Zealand bowling attack into a real threat.
After having lost their last two Test series to the West Indies and India, Bond will be under massive pressure to inject more accuracy and variation into the bowling attack in time for the upcoming tours of Sri Lanka and South Africa.
New Zealand will be looking for Bond to provide them with a new and improved bowling attack that will be able to bring down these higher ranked behemoths, thus allowing the Black Caps to rise up the ranks.
“Playing for New Zealand was the highlight of my career from a professional point of view and I thought that once I finished I’d have something to offer, the last couple of years have been about preparing myself to perhaps have the opportunity to take this role, and I’m just rapt that I got it. I’m pretty clear on what I want to do and it’s just a matter of getting some buy-in from those guys. I think there’s a respect there between myself and the players, I certainly won’t go in with a dictator’s point of view, and I think it’s just working alongside those guys and getting the best out of them,” Bond said.
Bond noted that his main philosophy as a bowling coach was going to be getting the most out of every bowler no matter what, and the former pace bowler added that he would be attempting to help the bowling attack be extremely consistent over all three formats of the game.
“I’ve always been someone who’s been organised and professional, and it is just getting the best out of players, I understand that it is their careers and they will have a way they want to get about their work. As a coach it is just about challenging those ideas and pushing the guys along so they can reach their potential. If you look at the players we’ve got, they’ve got the skills, and it’s not always about bowling fast. It’s just about being more consistent, not just within a game but game by game. I think we see good performances, game to game the guys turn up and really do well, but what we want is to see that on a consistent level. As a coach it’s about getting a consistent performance, not only over a game, but a series and beyond,” Bond said.
Bond noted that if the players were willing to commit themselves to his programme, they should have no problems with shifting between formats.
“There’s challenges because you jump from format to format so fast, so preparation before tours is going to be important to give the guys the information they need to lead into each tour. Then it’s up to myself and them to implement some training stuff so when they hit the tour they’re ready to go. That’s the way it’s been for a long time, and most of the adjustments are mental,” Bond added.
Having sustained many injuries throughout his international career, Bond stated that he would be able to help bowlers get back on track very soon if they were to fall victim to injuries.
“I spent the last couple of years working with guys like Hamish Bennett and Matt Henry who are rebuilding from similar injuries to what I’ve had,” Bond said. “I understand the challenges in and around injuries, not only from a physical point of view but the psychological impacts that can have as well. There’s a lot of experiences I’ll pull in from playing that I’ll use, but there’s also the last couple of years to reflect on things perhaps I should have done differently as a player, and things from different coaches,” Bond said.
Despite being more of a pace specialist, Bond noted that he was open to helping spin bowlers work on their technique and variations as well.
“You’ve got to acknowledge that’s definitely not my area of expertise, so I’ve got no problem whether it be pace or spin incorporating other coaches into the mix to give the guys a different voice, you can’t be everything for everyone, there’s going to be players in the team who already have coaches they like to work with. Part of my vision will be incorporating other coaches, giving guys different voices to listen to and let them take what they want to,” Bond added.
New Zealand’s first assignment will be a tour of Sri Lanka, and Bond mentioned that he would be using the entire series to study and note what areas the pace bowlers need major improvement on for future series.
“I think it’s just challenging the guys around practice to take that form into matches,” Bond said. “Testing those skills under pressure at training. It is going to take a little bit of time to incorporate that stuff, it’s not a matter of me just coming and imposing everything I want to do in the first tour, it’ll be balanced, there’ll be time to get to know the players,” Bond said.