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Cricket’s short of fast bowlers these days. New Zealand are short of strike bowlers. The upcoming England v New Zealand series is short of stars.
Shane Bond’s a fast strike bowler from New Zealand and is unquestionably one of the stars of international cricket. He’s in England right now, he’s fit and he’s just taken 7-66. But he won’t be featuring in the Test series.
The only people who might be remotely happy about this are the IPL bosses, because Shane Bond signed up with the IPL’s rival, the ICL (which unforgivably came up with the idea of an Indian Twenty20 league).
We don’t reckon the IPL bods would notice if Bond played in this Test series. They’re too busy throwing money around and laughing. If New Zealand are still worried, they could always put him in disguise or something. We promise we wouldn’t let on if we recognised him. And nor would you, right?
Shouldn’t cricket be building capacity instead of squandering resources? ( just come from our local 2020 Summit – I’m talking the talk)
Personally, I’d take Shane Bond in any form. I can’t understand why NZ decided to shoot themselves in the foot over him, but that’s Kiwis for you,
Maybe they like losing
If NZ did sneak him into the test squad with, I don’t know, some long blond extensions or something, I definitely wouldn’t let on, partly because I think it’s ridiculous that we’re not going to get to see him, and partly because it’s better than England being beaten by a Bond-less NZ.
It’s certainly worth trying to sneak him in. Call him something completely innocuous – ‘Bane Shond’, for instance.
Also, I think we should totally call up Saqlain Mushtaq. I’m pretty sure his qualification period’s ended, plus he’s willing and hardly past it at only 31. How fantastic would it be to see Saqqy and Monty bowling in tandem? Very fantastic, that’s how.