Bond has no regrets over joining ICL

A "vague" Indian Premier League (IPL) contract might be the reason why Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, opted to sign for the Indian Cricket League (ICL), a move that ultimately led to the end of his international career.

Bond, speaking to the Herald on Sunday, said New Zealand Cricket (NZC) wanted him to sign up with the IPL, but by then was in negotiations with the ICL. "They [NZC] wanted me to go to the IPL because they were pushing their players that way. But I was really thorough with what I had gone through with the ICL," Bond said. "I had a full contract that I had been through with the lawyers and they were really happy with it. It covered off every eventuality I could think of.

"Then I was given the IPL offer, but it was a one-and-a-half page memorandum of understanding that was really vague."

Bond said he did what he thought was the right decision after consultation. "I spoke to the Players' Association and with the lawyers and they both said 'you can't sign that because you don't know what you're signing'." The New Zealand Players' Association had slammed the contracts offered by the IPL last year.

"At the time I had to make a decision and it was easy, really. One was thorough and I knew what I was getting myself into and the other one I didn't really know what was going on," Bond said. "It was a simple decision in some respects.

"It's been disappointing that everything has been clouded because I'm a very black-and-white sort of person," Bond said. "With the various things being written and said in the media, it almost looks like it's been clouded to make it reflect poorly on me. I wanted to do everything properly, to get a release, to let people know what was happening so we could move forward. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, I wasn't able to do that.

"But some people are always going to think you're a traitor, and I can live with that," he said. "There's a right way and a wrong way of going about improving your circumstances and I think I went about it the right way, so I don't understand why people would be calling me disloyal.

"I find it strange that in any other job people accept that you try to improve your circumstances and get in a better position to provide for your family, but it's almost like you're not supposed to do that in sport. I don't understand that; maybe it's because professional sport is so new in this country. "

He warned that cases similar to his will crop up in the future in New Zealand. "Even though I'm gone now, this is going to be an issue that keeps affecting the game here - whether it's domestic or international players, or fringe international players who are looking at other opportunities. It will be interesting to see how it pans out."

He suggested his constant injuries did play on his mind as well, especially on contemplating retirement from Tests. "I got off the plane from South Africa and thought it was just going to be the usual rehabilitation then back into it. I had a scan and found out I was going to be out for two months and got really down in the dumps.

"I started thinking about it and came to the realisation I didn't want to go through that feeling of coming home from a tour early again. I looked at last year where I got through the whole year and went to the World Cup and everything went brilliantly.

"The whole year was basically one-dayers, so I started looking back to when I had problems and it was almost always in Test cricket."