For Shane Bond, success and unfulfillment

John Greenleaf Whittier was not thinking of sport when we wrote that "of all sad words of tongue and pen / The saddest are these, 'It might have been.' "

His words, though, are highly applicable to sport. It is a world in which failure to fulfill potential is peculiarly palpable. We can all think of the "can't-miss kids" who did precisely that, or teams who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

A sense of just such disappointment attaches to Shane Bond, the cricketer whose international career may have ended with the cancellation of his contract this week by the New Zealand Cricket Board.

Bond, 32, is certainly not a sporting failure. He played in 17 five-day test matches and 67 one-day internationals for New Zealand, also appearing in the pioneering Twenty20 World Cup last year. He took 79 test wickets and 125 in one-dayers. He is currently rated seventh in world rankings for test bowlers - he has been as high as third - and second in one-dayers.

Yet there could have been so much more. Bond has missed more matches than he played for New Zealand. It played 44 tests and 148 one-day internationals between his first and last appearances.

He was not let down by character or intelligence, but his body - at once the greatest asset and the great enemy of the top-class sportsman. The physique that gave him the rare gift of propelling a cricket ball accurately at speeds of more than 90 miles per hour was unable to sustain this ability over long periods, and he suffered injury after injury.

It was a profound frustration to New Zealand. With the narrowest playing base of the 10 test-playing nations other than currently suspended Zimbabwe, it overachieves by competing successfully in the middle ranks in tests and regularly reaching the semifinals in one-day World Cups.

Bond offered New Zealand the chance of being something more. If he had been available regularly, he could have transformed it from competitor to contender. Given the spearhead represented by a truly high-class paceman, its bowling would have been formidable. Without him, finger-spinner Daniel Vettori and a clutch of competent fast-medium bowlers represent a group to respect rather than fear.

With Bond on the team, New Zealand won 9 tests out of 17 and drew 6 of the others, a success rate of more than 70 percent. His only defeats came in his last two matches for New Zealand. Without him it won 8 matches, drew 7 and lost 13, a success rate barely above 40 percent.

If the contrast is not quite so spectacular in one-dayers, it is still clear Bond made a difference. New Zealand won 38 out of 67 matches when he was playing, but only 35 out of 81 when he was not there. Where some good players shrivel against the Australians, the world's most dangerous opponents and winners of the last three World Cups, Bond blossomed. In 11 one-dayers against them, he took 34 wickets at an average of fewer than 14 runs apiece, including a spell of 6 wickets for 23 in a World Cup match at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 2003.

That history of injuries also explains why Bond opted to sign a contract with the rebel Indian Cricket League. At nearly 33 he is old for a paceman, and the ICL offered a chance to make serious money from his talents before it is too late.

In cricket, opportunities to make money depend heavily on your nationality. If you want to be a multimillionaire, you pretty much have to be Indian. Rewards for New Zealanders are commensurate with what you would expect from a nation of four million people where rugby is all-powerful.

Bond's ICL contract is reported to be three times what he is paid by the New Zealand Cricket Board, with a clause guaranteeing his income even if he is injured. The board was eager to retain his services, but it is committed with other cricket ruling bodies to supporting its Indian counterpart in its battle against the rebel competition.

Given Bond's history and age, it is hard to blame him for seizing what must have looked like a late one-off chance. The New Zealand board has been at pains to stress that it is not ruling out a return. One suspects, though, that both he and his nation's officials will watch next month's three-test series against England - against whom Bond has never played a test - with regrets over what might have been.

Source : http://www.iht.com/