Sometimes in sport, as in life, you come across people who leave a significant impression on you. Shane Bond was one such person.
Here was a genuine superstar of sport, by New Zealand standards. A player as gifted in his chosen craft of fast bowling as any New Zealand has produced. He was a tormentor of Australians which made his appeal all the greater.
But Bond's misfortune was to be gifted with a back which did not allow him sustained opportunities to ply his trade and his appearances were restricted to fleeting moments to savour.
Yet he never wavered from being the friendly, and helpful, individual that he was from the start of his career. Perhaps it was because his cricket career came as something of a second chance, after he had experienced life in the work force, not an occurrence which is too common among those who were his team-mates.
Bond's cricket revival came after he had gone through the rigours of training for service in New Zealand's police force and with it came sufficient strength for him to be able to whip the ball through a little faster than most New Zealand bowlers were capable of.
He had an inswinger of great precision which proved too good for the best batsmen in the world.
Who will ever forget the hold he had over one of the world's finest batsmen, of any era, Brian Lara? Time after time he destroyed Lara's stumps at crucial stages in games, and there was probably no finer demonstration of that than at Eden Park in 2006.
The West Indies were chasing 291 to win, and at 148-0 they were cruising. Initially a breakthrough came through Nathan Astle's dismissal of Chris Gayle.
And then skipper Stephen Fleming let Bond loose. Ramnaresh Sarwan was hit and retired hurt. Lara walked out to replace him and was bowled first ball. Daniel Vettori claimed Shivnarine Chanderpaul, before Darren Ganga fell to Astle. Then Dwayne Smith came and went in five balls, caught by Fleming off Bond for a duck. Sarwan came back and offered a chance from Bond which Scott Styris took and then as the last pair threatened to hang around, Bond completed the coup de grace by bowling Jerome Taylor.
New Zealand took a 27-run win and Bond 5-69, one of five five-wicket bags in his Test career.
Bond's competitiveness against Australia was most notable in One-Day Internationals, but his involvement in the three-drawn Tests of the 2000-01 series, made New Zealand a genuine contender and it is fair to say that series was the last time it was.
It is a measure of Bond's worth to New Zealand that when he played the danger to opposing sides was increased by at least 50 percent.
The treatment he received from New Zealand Cricket over his decision to play Twenty20 cricket for a so-called rebel series in India was an indictment of the administration and undeserving of a player who had given so much to attempt to play for the country. That it left no stain on him was appropriate but there must have been a significant sigh of relief when he did not opt to pursue legal action – the loss to NZC might well have been considerable.
His was a fleeting time on centre stage but to cricket connoisseurs what time he was able to give was well worth making the effort to see.
In many cases players come and players go, but it will be many years before we see a fast bowler in this country as talented as Bond was. He will be genuinely missed.