Great to see Indians bowling quick: Shane Bond

Shane Bond loves to talk about fast bowling. As a bowling coach he has deep knowledge about what fast bowling is all about. How the current crop should be handled by the managements all over the world and what they should do to preserve them to sustain longer.

One of the fastest bowlers of his time who could clock 145 kmph plus regularly, Bond's eight-year international career was mostly marred by injuries, which was restricted to just 18 Test matches and 82 ODIs.

The Mumbai Indians Bowling coach is impressed by the new Indian fast bowlers. "There are heap of them who have been impressive. There are a lot of quick bowlers around the country who have showcased the skills. There are a couple of guys from Kings XI Punjab, then Harshal Patel from RCB who has done extremely well. There are players in every team. It is fun to watch," he said in an interaction with dna.

The 39-year-old praised the Indian fast bowling unit. "I was impressed the way they bowled in the World Cup (in Australia-New Zealand). They had good fast bowlers and bowled bouncers beautifully. It is great to see bowlers like Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohd Shami who can bowl quick. There is good talent in India," he said.

Bond added that the administration should take proper care to preserve these bowlers. "The management should take care, keep them fit so that they can bowl fast and remain hungry. That is the challenge in a busy schedule and a packed international calender which includes T20 leagues as well. Here In comes the job of coaches and the trainers to make sure you manage those players."

Bond said that the management has to allow pacers to take breaks and not make them play round the year. "You have to keep them going strong in the gym. You can't just play them all year long. They should pick and choose and plan accordingly if the an important tour or World Cup is coming up. You need to know when they need a break, when they need to be conditioned and what skills need to be worked on. Make a plan to train with coaches, trainers and physios. You should have a pool – a group of bowlers with some competition that is when you hit good performances," he said.

Citing the example of Brett Lee, Bond said: "My career was hampered by injuries. But if you look at someone like Brett Lee who retired recently, he was still bowling at 140kmph plus at the age 40. He was always fit, lean and looked good. He managed himself well and played close to 80 Test matches despite getting injured in between. One should know the breaking point and on top of that he should know how to manage it."

With the ICC cricket committee suggesting a few changes like keeping the seam of the ball more pronounced in ODIs and the changes in field restrictions, Bond felt too much of tinkering is not good.

"I am vary of the chops and changes in the ODIs. The rules don't have to be changed. In the last World Cup, we saw big scores and then some low scores. I found the tournament exciting. There are fantastic bowlers like Mitchell Starc who are feared. If you keep changing the rules, people will get disillusioned that there is something wrong with the game."

Bond said he is happy with the way his team bounced back in the tournament to reach the finals.

"From day one we have trained hard on and off the field. It took time to get the game going. We batted pretty well initially but the bowling unit didn't quite put up together. After tinkering with the selection we got the balance right. We simply took one game at a time after a bad phase. We held our nerves, stuck to our plans and our confidence have only grown."