Former New Zealand pacer Shane Bond has said that he is ready to take up the role of a head coach.
Bond has been involved with coaching for the past seven years which has seen him take up the bowling coach roles with the New Zealand cricket team, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians and Big Bash League (BBL) outfit Brisbane Heat.
The 42-year-old has recently been given charge of the New Zealand A team who will fly out to India on Tuesday.
Bond has been handed a short-term contract with the side which will play two four-day games and five ODIs during their tour of the country.
“I think it’s time and I’m ready to go into a head coach role having been an assistant coach for seven years now,” Bond said in an interview with One News Now.
“I think you always like to sometimes put your own stamp on things and I think the only way to know if you really want to do the role is actually get in and do it,” he added.
The Christchurch-born man believes that a move from bowling coach to head coach would be the next logical step in his personal development and he is keen to take up that challenge.
“I love being a bowling coach but I think it gives a different perspective in terms of my own personal development, it’s a new challenge and I think it will be good for me,” he said.
“I’ve got really clear ideas about how I want to run things over there with a really good team behind me and we will just reflect on it at the end of the series.”
Bond was the bowling coach of New Zealand between 2012-15.
The New Zealand A side will take on their Indian counterparts in the first four-day game at Vijaywada starting this Saturday.
While a head coach now seems to be Bond’s aim, there have been murmurs about the former Blackcaps pacer being in line for the England bowling coach role on a short-term deal for the upcoming Ashes series Down Under.
England are without a bowling coach at the moment following Ottis Gibson’s resignation in the summer to take up the head coach role at South Africa.
Widen Cricketers’ Almanack editor Lawrence Booth had said in a report that England were set to confirm the Kiwi for the job after he was named their preferred candidate last week.
The report had mentioned that Bond would join up the England squad for the first three Tests only to enable him to fulfill his contract with Brisbane Heat for the BBL which starts on December 19.
Whether Bond will take up the role remains to be seen but for now the Kiwi stalwart has set his eyes on being a head coach.