Bond stays fit on return

Shane Bond was a satisfied man after his first competitive bowl yesterday since surgery on his back for a stress fracture. He turned up for his Old Boys-Collegians club in Christchurch cricket and bowled 10 overs in two spells to finish with one for 13.

"I'm really pleased with the result," Bond said the next day after waking up without any discomfort. He said he was not so worried about his figures, but more about the way he bowled and came through. "I've refined my action. I run in a lot closer to the umpire now and I am trying to get everything in a straight line to stop what they call the counter-rotation going on between the top and bottom of my body."

Bond said he had been slowly building up his bowling workload over the last seven weeks, although the poor weather in New Zealand meant he had to mostly stay indoors. But while the intention had been to bowl within himself, he said he had still managed to let "a couple go".

Bond believed his progress over the next few weeks would reveal how far he was down the road to recovery, but that, at this stage, he was hopeful of playing some form of representative cricket in the near future.