Shane Bond has signed with the Mumbai Indians

When the IPL first began (was it in 2008?; hard to remember) the original concern was that it would have a detrimental effect on player loyalties.  The old club/franchise v country debate.

Until now, with New Zealand players anyway, it has been a delicate truce that has mostly worked.  It has been disastrous for the West Indies, but there may be other factors at play there.

The unforeseen impact has been around coaches, and Bond’s exit to be the bowling coach at the Mumbai Indians is a good example of that.  Bond will have been the bowling coach for New Zealand for around two and a half years, which in the world of modern international cricket is reasonably impressive.

During that time he has built up a pretty impressive CV which clearly did not go unnoticed by the Mumbai Overlords.  The rise and rise of Southee and Boult, coupled with the development of Milne, McClenaghan, Henry and Bracewell.  Suddenly he became pretty hot property.

Being an international cricket coach is a pretty hard grind.  You are on the road for around 9-10 months a year (even when in New Zealand) which is tough on anyone.  When you are an IPL coach you work on-site for 12 weeks a year for a sum of money which is likely to be somewhere around three times that of the full time gig.

FYI.  Craig McMillan comes off contract in September 2016.

People say that Stephen Fleming should try to coach New Zealand.  He wouldn’t do that while the likes of McCullum, Vettori and Taylor are still playing.  But even then; why would he?

What can New Zealand Cricket do about this?  Not a lot.  This is the new face of cricket coaching; all they can really do is to prepare for the inevitable.