Special glucose therapy revives Shane Bond

A course of glucose injections into his battered back has worked wonders for pace bowler Shane Bond, who headed to India today to relaunch his international cricket career.

Bond and the New Zealand A team, led by fellow Canterbury player Peter Fulton, fly out of Auckland to play at the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai.

Bond has been receiving courses of prolotherapy to ease soreness in his lower back, which required spinal surgery several years ago after repeated stress fractures.

"It's been the best thing I've ever had for it," Bond said yesterday before the team's departure.

"It relaxes the back, loosens it up and makes a massive difference."

"I've got a few screws and wires in there and it can make the back pretty tight but this just frees it up."

Bond heard last season about the injections performed by Dr John Lyftogt, based at QE II Park, and thought they might have helped an achilles tendon problem he had.

A solution injected into ligaments or tissues where they attach to the bone stimulates the tissues to repair themselves by increasing the blood supply around the area.

Bond said he noticed the treatment was beneficial when he was returning for second and third bowling spells.

"It can be quite painful initially but then settles down."

Heading to the Indian tournament is like going back to the future, as it is the same event where Bond emerged from provincial obscurity eight years ago.

"Yeah, it is a bit like starting all over again, I guess. I feel a bit like the new boy getting back into it," Bond said. He last played for the Black Caps almost two years ago at the inaugural Twenty20 tournament in South Africa before signing for the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League, which caused his non-selection for New Zealand.

Having now shed his ICL ties Bond has been warmly welcomed back into the national fold and is working his way back to the Black Caps by playing for New Zealand A in its series of two-day matches against some of India's state selections.

Provided all goes well he will join the Black Caps for the limited-over leg of their series against Sri Lanka later this month and the Champions Trophy tournament that follows.

In 2001 Bond got his break into the top-level cricket when he replaced Scott Styris in the A team for the same tournament.

In one match Bond bagged seven for 45 and convinced the national selectors he warranted higher honours, which came a couple of months later as a replacement for Dion Nash on New Zealand's tour of Australia.

Bond burst onto the scene in the one-day series that followed, being the highest wicket taker and acclaimed as the man of the series as New Zealand made the final against South Africa.

Bond is well aware he is returning to Chennai with its 30 degrees Celsius-plus temperatures but feels he is better prepared.

He said he was happy to be returning to the top level via new Zealand A instead of being pitched immediately into a test series against Sri Lanka.

"I think I've got the better end of the deal," he said in reference to the Black Caps who will experience the sapping heat under first-class conditions whereas New Zealand A is just playing two-day fixtures.

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