Mascarenhas NZ bowling coach for England tour

Dimitri Mascarenhas, the former Hampshire and England allrounder, will have a chance to help defeat former team-mates after being named New Zealand's interim bowling coach to replace Shane Bond for the tour of England in May.

Bond will finish in his position after the World Cup having decided he wants to spend less time away from home and will focus on his role with Mumbai Indians in the IPL.

Mascarenhas, 37, who played 20 ODIs and 14 T20s for England between 2007 and 2009, is currently in his first year as coach of Otago who are second in the Plunket Shield table and reached the preliminary-finals stage of the one-day Ford Trophy but finished bottom of the domestic T20.

"After being in New Zealand for only a year, to have an opportunity like this come up is pretty special and I am honoured to be chosen for this position," Mascarenhas said. "Bondy has done an extremely good job with his bowling unit; they have operated with real pace, skill and tactical awareness.

"During this World Cup they have been phenomenal and I am looking forward to working with those guys to keep developing them and helping them achieve success on the international stage."

Mascarenhas finished his Hampshire career in 2013 and believes his recent experiences in England will serve him well with New Zealand when they arrive for a tour which includes two Tests, five one-day internationals and a T20.

"I am newly out of the scene there as a player and I know most of the guys in the current team very well," he said. "The new guys I have played a lot with in county cricket and I know all the grounds we are playing at intimately so those factors will be useful in terms of the scouting and bowling plans."

It will be a tough assignment to follow Bond who has been widely credited with the development of New Zealand's bowling attack into one of the best in the world. Alongside the incisive new-ball pair of Tim Southee and Trent Boult, who have flourished under Bond's tutelage since he became bowling coach in 2012, there is the upcoming Adam Milne in the World Cup squad alongside Mitchell McClenaghan and Kyle Mills.

Matt Henry was unlucky not to make the World Cup while Neil Wagner, the left-arm pace bowler, will likely feature on the Test leg of the England tour as could Doug Bracewell.

However, Mascarenhas will not have all the first-choice quicks to work with during the early days of the England with New Zealand's IPL-contracted players - which include Southee and Boult, the latter who went for more than US$800,000 to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the recent auction - having been given permission to arrive in the UK by May 19, which is two days before the opening day of the first Test at Lord's.

The England tour will be an audition for Mascarenhas with a decision on a full-time replacement for Bond set to be taken later in the year before the tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa, which begins at the end of July.