Fully-fit Bond looks ahead to Champions Trophy

Shane Bond, the New Zealand fast bowler, and Sreesanth, one of India's recent finds, both denied that ball tampering was a common practice in first-class or international cricket.

"Not now. I don't think it [ball tampering] happens that much," Bond told Cricinfo, after a function to launch Nike's new light-weight cricket shoe. "People acknowledge that there are cameras capturing every moment, there are rules in place and the consequences [if you get caught] are severe, so, I'd have to say no, I don't think it happens much. I just think teams are more skilled in being able to reverse the ball."

Bond, who has recovered fully from injury and is 100 per cent fit to take part in the Champions Trophy, said he was training indoors back home in New Zealand and was looking forward to playing international cricket again. "I needed some minor surgery on my knee and it took about six weeks to recover from that. Now I'm just getting warmed up and easing myself back to full fitness. I've been bowling for a while now, so I'm fully fit."

Sreesanth, meanwhile, burst out laughing when asked whether he had encountered ball tampering at any level of the game - from school cricket to international cricket. "I've never come across anything like that in first-class cricket or international cricket," he told Cricinfo, and then cast his eye back to his school days. "In school we'd heard of tampering, but thought, 'what is this? How do you do that?' So we used to keep a cap from a soft drink bottle in the pocket and try to scuff up the ball."

Interestingly Sreesanth believes that conditions in India were such that the need to alter the condition of the ball does not arise. "When you're playing in Kerala you don't have to do all that. It's so dry and the ground is so hard that the ball does things. Take the time I got a hat-trick. The first two wickets were normal swing. Off the third ball I bowled an inswinger, It pitched on leg and took the off stump. I bowled an inswinger and the ball was just nine overs old! So you don't have to do it [tamper with the ball]"

Bond, who has taken 64 wickets in 14 Tests and has a fine strike-rate of 18 plus in one-day internationals, said his team were gearing themselves up for the Champions Trophy. "We will start a two-week camp for the Champions Trophy around September 25 and will reach India a week ahead of our first match [against South Africa at the Brabourne Stadium here on October 16]," he said.