Kieron Pollard

Kieron Adrian Pollard (born 12 May 1987) is a former Trinidadian cricketer, who captained the West Indies cricket team in limited overs cricket.

He currently plays in various T20 leagues around the globe as an all-rounder.

He also captains MI Emirates and MI New York in the ILT20 and MLC respectively.

After representing Trinidad and Tobago in the 2005 TCL Group West Indies Under-19 Challenge, he was selected as part of the West Indies Under-19 cricket team to tour Pakistan.

Pollard top-scored for the West Indies in the first youth One Day International (ODI), scoring 53 runs off 49 balls.

Pollard made another half-century in the second match, but didn't manage to make double figures in either of last two games.

He was named in the West Indies squad for the 2006 U/19 Cricket World Cup, held in Sri Lanka, where he only managed to make 19–runs in his four innings, though he did manage to take two wickets in a defeat to Australia.

During the 2006 English season, he went to England to play for Haxey CC in Lincolnshire; he played five games for the club before he was recalled by Trinidad and Tobago to play in the Stanford Twenty20.

Pollard made his senior debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the twenty20 competition against the Cayman Islands in July 2006.

He finished the tournament with a respectable return of six wickets, and starred in the semi-final against Nevis, scoring 83 runs off just 38 balls, an innings which included 7 sixes to book Trinidad and Tobago's place in the final.

He made his first-class debut six months later against Barbados, and marked the occasion with a century.

As in the Twenty20, his innings contained a large number of boundaries, with 86 of his 126 runs coming from either fours or sixes.

A score of 46 not out on his List A debut ensured that Pollard was in the selector's minds for the upcoming World Cup, and he described it as "a dream come true" when he was selected in the provisional 30-man squad for the tournament.

Pollard's "dream run" continued with half-centuries in both four-day and 50-over matches against Guyana, followed by his second first-class century, coming against the Leeward Islands.

Trinidad and Tobago remained unbeaten in the 2006–07 KFC Cup, beating Windward Islands in the final to claim the trophy.

Pollard finished as the competition's leading run-scorer, making 261 runs from his seven innings at an average of over 40.

Although named in the provisional 30-man squad for the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, Pollard failed to make the cut for the tournament.

The absence of Pollard and Lendl Simmons from the West Indies performance squad in 2007–08 was described as "baffling" by Tony Cozier, describing how the pair "had been seemingly identified as among those for the future but have quickly been shunted aside."

Pollard was disappointing as Trinidad and Tobago won the 2007–08 Stanford Twenty20, averaging nine from his three innings.

The 2008–09 West Indies Cricket Board Cup saw an improvement in Pollard's bowling, as he claimed nine wickets in the competition with a bowling average of 14.22.

An all-round performance against Jamaica in the semi-finals, in which he took three wickets and made 76, earned Trinidad and Tobago a place in the final, and Pollard the man of the match award.

In the 2009 Champions league T-20 for Trinidad & Tobago, Pollard hit 54 runs in just 18 balls in the 15th match against New South Wales in Hyderabad.

This earned the man of the match award and his side a crucial win.

His display of hitting was so impressive that NSW approached Pollard after the game and attempted to sign him for themselves.

Pollard has also represented the South Australian Redbacks in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash and Somerset County Cricket Club for the 2010 Friends Provident t20.

Pollard had a successful 2010 Friends Provident t20 for Somerset, helping them to the final of the competition on 14 August 2010.

He scored 354 runs during the competition at 32.18 – the second highest Somerset batting average – including two half centuries at a strike rate of 175.24 runs per 100 balls.

He also took 29 wickets at 15.10, second among all Somerset's bowlers.

He was part of the 2012 ICC World T20 winning team for West Indies.

Against Jamaica, Pollard showed his bowling ability, claiming four wickets in his seven overs to claim his fifth man of the match award in his 15th senior match.

In September 2019, Pollard was named as the captain of the West Indies One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) teams.

In March 2020, he became the first cricketer to play in 500 Twenty20 matches.

His game has been suited for limited overs formats, in which he has enjoyed a long international career; he has never played Test Cricket.

In a match against Sri Lanka in March 2021, he hit six sixes in one over bowled by Akila Dananjaya and became the third batsman to do so in international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh.

In February 2022, in the second match against India, Pollard became the first cricketer for the West Indies to play in 100 T20I matches.

On April 20th, 2022, Pollard announced his retirement from international cricket.

On November 15th, 2022, Pollard announced his retirement from IPL after playing for Mumbai Indians for 13 seasons.

He was then appointed as the batting coach for Mumbai Indians.

Pollard was born in Tacarigua, Trinidad and Tobago, where he was raised, along with two younger sisters, in a poor home by his single mother.

Speaking about it, Pollard reflects "it wasn't ideal getting up and your mum say 'We only have X of money'."