It was an old boys’ reunion even the most ardent New Zealand cricket follower would have struggled to envisage.

Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey probably had doubts as well over the intervening seasons, but in Tuesday night’s Tri-Series one-dayer against Sri Lanka they formed New Zealand’s three-pronged pace attack for the first time in more than seven years.

The trio last hunted as a pack at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, in June 2002 – and it was a successful expedition as the West Indies were humbled by 202 runs in the first test to tee up a historic series win in the Caribbean.

Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler.

While Bond’s list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler’s inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations.

New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.

He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while ‘drugged up’ before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler’s words: “Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong.”

Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of Read more…

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