Inaugural SI women’s Bond to coach UAE league side tournament success
LONDON: The Mumbai Indians have announced that former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has been named the head coach of their MI Emirates team in the United Arab Emiratesbased International League T20 competition.
Bond, who is also Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach in the Indian Premier League, will be assisted by Parthiv Patel (batting coach), Vinay Kumar (bowling coach) and James Franklin (fielding coach).
‘‘It’s always exciting to build a new team and I’m looking forward to furthering the MI legacy and inspiring our players to take the game to new heights,’’ Bond, 47, said.
The sixteam ILT20, which launches in January, will be the second most lucrative Twenty20 tournament after the IPL in terms of player remuneration.
While the fixtures for the ILT20 are not out yet, the tournament will be played in the same JanuaryFebruary 2023 window as the SA20 league in South Africa.
That required the Mumbai Indians group to appoint multiple coaching teams, since they have teams in both competitions.
Mark Boucher, who will step down from his position as the head coach of the South Africa men’s national team at the end of the team’s campaign at the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia, has been signed up to be the head coach at Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
That position opened up after
Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai Indians head coach since 2017, was elevated to a more global role within the Mumbai Indians group as the group’s global head of performance. He will be overseeing the scouting and coaching of all three teams that the owners have — at the IPL, the ILT20, and the SA20.
Bond has been a part of the coaching setup of a number of teams in the past.
Apart from being the New Zealand bowling coach and part of the team’s backroom staff at various stages, he has also been the head coach at Sydney Thunder in the BBL, a position he held between 2018 and 2021. He has also been part of the England team as a bowling consultant in the past. — Reuters
CANTERBURY made a little history but women’s rugby league was (cliche alert) the winner on the day.
The women’s code took a big step with the inaugural South Island tournament in Dunedin at the weekend.
Four keen teams and six mostly competitive games equalled a positive start to a concept that will now need to be given a chance to become a regular fixture on the calendar.
Canterbury made no race of the final, thumping Tasman 440 yesterday.
The redandblacks also showed their class with a 460 win over Otago on Saturday, but they were made to work hard for a 2010 win over Southland in the second round.
It meant Canterbury becoming the inaugural holder of the Mary Brennan Trophy.
Brennan was a stalwart of the game who represented Canterbury from 1991 to 2005, and made her Kiwi Ferns debut at 41. She still contributes as a volunteer and coach of female players.
After its rough start, Otago had two competitive games.
It was beaten 1614 by Tasman on Saturday afternoon, and pipped 2018 by Southland in the thirdfourth playoff.
Tasman had beaten Southland 1210 in the first round.