Thunderball Bond's exit lifts England

Bond yesterday had his contract cancelled by New Zealand Cricket because of his involvement with the rebel Indian league and will miss the two Twenty20 matches, five one-day internationals and three Tests against England.

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Hadlee, New Zealand's chairman of selectors, admitted it was a huge blow. 'Bond is a quite outstanding talent and he would have been our trump card.

"Now we will just have to make do with what we've got. It was an issue that needed to be resolved and Shane had to make his choice. But it's a real shame for us that he found himself in a compromised position."

Bond, whose career has been severely hampered by injury, believed he could still play against England before linking up for the second ICL series.

However, at the behest of the ICC, New Zealand told him he would have to make a choice so he reluctantly agreed to bring his international career to a temporary end rather than drag the matter through the courts.

The news was welcomed by England's one-day captain Paul Collingwood as England settled in ahead of their first warm-up match in Christchurch on Saturday.

"We were preparing ourselves to play against Bond and it's a big loss for New Zealand that he's not going to be here," he said.

"Any bowler who bowls the ball at 90mph-plus is pretty difficult to play against. He has been the spearhead of their attack and good at the death, too."

New Zealand's cricketing knight is predicting a drawn Test series despite Bond's absence. Hadlee feels that his side, World Cup semi-finalists last year, have the edge in limited overs cricket.

He said: "This is certainly an eagerly anticipated tour. We have been starved of Test cricket in recent months but we have to get our Test game in order because there's a danger we have stagnated in the longer game. Our biggest problem is we haven't been scoring enough hundreds or getting big enough first innings scores.

"The key player in the England team is Kevin Pietersen. He is an outstanding player, a competitive bloke I would have enjoyed bowling against and his stroke play is phenomenal."

Sir Richard, who is considering his position at the head of New Zealand's selection panel after "eight tough years", defended the decision to take the Test captaincy away from Stephen Fleming after he retired from one-day cricket and hand it to Daniel Vettori.

"It was time to move on," said Hadlee. "He made the call himself in one-day cricket and Daniel deserved the chance to lead us in the Test game, too. I have a gut feeling that this tour will see him make real progress as a captain."

Former England captain Andrew Flintoff, meanwhile, insists he is on course to start the season with Lancashire after his fourth ankle operation, but admitted he was concerned about his batting.

"I know that when I've returned feeling fit after each of my three previous operations bowling hasn't been a problem. But throughout this injury period my batting has really suffered. As a batsman you need to get a rhythm going, to play day in and day out for long periods and feel comfortable at the crease.

"But you can't do that when you are stop-starting with injuries. My batting is my worry and I'm desperate to get it back."

Seven weeks of fitness recovery work in America under the guidance of former Lancashire and England physio Dave Roberts have left Flintoff looking lean.

He is travelling to India with a mixture of Lancashire youth and fringe first-team players to work at the Bombay Cricket Academy for 10 days before joining the full Lancashire squad in a preseason tournament in Abu Dhabi in March.