Bond stays tight-lipped on England coaching role
He’s playing his cards close, but it’s hard to think of a reason why Shane Bond wouldn’t accept a prized role as England’s bowling coach for the Ashes cricket series this summer.
One of New Zealand’s best fast bowlers, and a quality bowling coach in his time with the Black Caps, Bond was labelled by the Telegraph as the No 1 target to help England plot the downfall of Australia’s batsmen in the five-test series starting in November.
The one potential stumbling block for Bond is his existing contract with Australian Twenty20 Big Bash side Brisbane Heat, coached by his former team-mate Daniel Vettori.
Bond wasn’t commenting yesterday on the prospect of joining England, but did confirm via text message he is contracted by the Heat for the Big Bash which starts on December 19.
It could mean a chat with Vettori and Brisbane Heat officials so he can delay rejoining them till the fifth test ends on January 8, should England come calling with what would certainly be a big money offer from November till early January and do what he did best: cause Australia’s batsmen as many headaches as possible.
Bond has worked with the country’s promising fast bowlers in the past two years and applied for, and was appointed, New Zealand A coach for their tour of India which departs next week. It’s Bond’s first head coaching role, and shows his ambitions to further his career. New Zealand Cricket are only contrac- ting Bond for the duration of the September 23-October 15 tour, and said he was free to pursue whichever coaching opportunities arose after that.
‘‘It’s a short-term contract which ends after the NZA tour, and then he’s a free agent. He could leave [to accept other coaching roles] with our blessing, no problem at all,’’ NZC public affairs manager Richard Boock said.
England are reportedly seeking a temporary replacement for bowling coach Ottis Gibson who is South Africa-bound after overseeing their series win over West Indies.
The Telegraph reported head coach Trevor Bayliss was keen to chase Bond, before making a fulltime appointment after the Ashes.
‘‘In the past we have had consultants come in we have had Mahela [Jayawardene] and people like that so the thought is that we might try and organise something along those lines just for the winter,’’ Bayliss told the Telegraph.
Bond’s stocks are high in world cricket after his own glittering but injury-plagued career, and his work with the Black Caps bowlers which saw Tim Southee and Trent Boult recognised as one of the world’s premier pace duos under his watch.
He was bowling coach under Mike Hesson up till the 2015 World Cup, and took on the same role with Mumbai Indians who were champions in this year’s Indian Premier League.
Bond is unlikely to want the England bowling coach job fulltime because of the time away from his young family, and the fact it would curtail his T20 roles like Mumbai and Brisbane.
Bond knows Australian conditions and the vagaries of the Kookaburra ball, and would command the respect of England new ball pair James Anderson and Stuart Broad. A large part of the job would be working on bowling plans to dismiss the Australian batsmen, one of his main strengths with New Zealand.