At the turn of the millennium, a young police constable sent traffic in the wrong direction on a one-way street in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Shocked out of his socks, a fire engine driver, wondering if a blissfully ignorant motorist had gone mad, asked incredulously “What are you doing ?”
It took some fire-fighting by senior colleagues in the force to restore order at the busy intersection.
“It wasn’t my finest hour,” recalled the fumbling guardian of the law, who not much later, would send batsmen scurrying for cover.
“That job took me out of my comfort zone, placed me in stressful situations, helped my self-confidence and prepared me pretty well for international cricket,” New Zealand-A’s coach Shane Bond told The Hindu in a chat.
In uniform he’d rather talk his way out of rough situations than use his hands. On a 22-odd yard strip of turf, he’d use them to devastating effect though, saving his breath when it came to the verbals.
“I understood there was no point in me sledging. I probably would have been hopeless at it,” admitted the former fastest bowler in the world, letting discerning adversaries read signs from his body language instead.
“I was fascinated by the speed gun, trying to beat what was the fastest, although I never considered I’d become the fastest,” Bond remembered. Once he got Steve Waugh, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar out, he’d tick them off the list.
“Those were wickets you took pleasure in. It was great to get key players in big games,” he said of cherished challenges.
“In order to be good, I had to be brutally honest with myself. Three sessions of physical fitness including boxing made me believe I’d worked harder and was primed better than the others to bowl,” Bond said of his work ethic.
His success as coach lies in not imposing himself.
“My job is to get the very best out of players. It’s got nothing to do with me and my time. It’s gone. You can lean on your experiences because you understand the pressures.
“But I try to get them into that space where they are at their best. Develop relationships with players with no agendas, so that they trust and put their faith in you,” he says of his approach.