BOND: Taking three honours

Auckland: Shane Bond concluded his second season of international cricket by taking three honours, including Player of the Year, at New Zealand cricket’s awards dinner on Thursday.

The Canterbury paceman won the award for first-class bowling, the Walter Hadlee Trophy for one-day International bowling, and the overall National Bank Player of the Year title.

He was the fourth winner of the top award in the past four years after Chris Cairns in 1999-2000, Mark Richardson in 2000-01 and Nathan Astle in 2001-02.

Bond bowled New Zealand to an inaugural Test series victory in the West Indies last July and was its star player at the World Cup in South Africa, where he took a record six for 23 against champions Australia.

Bond played just six first-class matches in the past year — four of them Tests against West Indies and India — and took 30 wickets at an average of 20, including successive five-wicket hauls in Barbados and Grenada.

In 17 one-day Internationals, he took 28 wickets at 22.07 runs each.