He was not even in Bangalore when two bombs went off minutes before an IPL match there but Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Shane Bond was so rattled when he heard of the incident that he just wanted to get out of India.
The Kiwi paceman said his last few days in India were uneasy after bomb explosions delayed the Royal Challengers Bangalore-Mumbai Indians IPL match.
"I was nervous," he admitted. The pacer said he was in Kolkata when the incident happened and had just one game left to play as his team had failed to make the semifinal cut.
"It (the Bangalore bombing) definitely made me more nervy. We went over there with the threat, I guess, but when that happened it became a reality," Bond was quoted as saying by 'The New Zealand Herald'.
"We had one game left at that stage and knew we couldn't qualify for the semifinals, so we just wanted to get out of there, really," he said.
Bond and compatriot Brendon McCullum, who also competed for Kolkata, packed their bags as soon as their matches got over even though participating players were expected to stay till the closing ceremony of the event on Sunday.
Bond and McCullum will now join the national team for the Twenty20 World Cup. The paceman said his IPL team may not have done too well but he was happy with his own performance.
"It wasn't too bad, I was pretty happy with the way I bowled. I missed a few games in the middle, which was disappointing, but I came back pretty strongly in the last few games," he said.
"I missed out at Bangalore for whatever reason and that was the quickest wicket we played on, so that was probably a mistake," he added.
Bond took nine wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 7.2. PTI
