After parting ways with the 'rebel' Indian Cricket League, fast bowler Shane Bond is now determined to play for New Zealand again and eyeing a gradual comeback to the national team.
The 34-year-bowler, who once expressed his unwillingness to don the national colour again, has clearly changed mind after his stint with the ICL ended last month.
"I've spoken to (selection panel manager) Glenn Turner and said I'm available to be picked but I expect to be picked on merit, like everyone else. But I've got to get cricket behind me and prove I can still perform," Bond said.
New Zealand would tour Sri Lanka in August-September, around the same time an 'A' team is expected to visit India and the speedy is hopeful of a berth in either of them.
"I hoped that through my domestic cricket it perhaps put me into consideration for an 'A' tour. If it didn't then I'd try and do my time in first-class cricket and get back that way," Bond was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald.
"I still felt I was the fastest bowler going around, but I wasn't in the best condition and have made a real concerted effort to pick my fitness up. I wanted to see if I still had it in me to do the training required, and was pleasantly surprised and feel rejuvenated," he added.
But the Canterbury pacer was candid enough to admit that at one point of time he all but gave up the hope of playing for national team again.
"I was very close to giving up. I'd lost a little motivation and had a chat to (Canterbury chief executive and coach) Lee Germon and Bob Carter. They talked me into playing.
It reinvigorated me. I realised how much I just enjoyed playing the game. I got a taste of it and that's why I decided to play four-day cricket again (next summer)," Bond said.