LONDON, England (CMC) – Kieron Pollard said his priorities are shifting now that his financial future is more secure, and he intended to focus on finding a place in the West Indies Test team next year. The West Indies all-rounder has been pigeon-holed as a limited-overs specialist since making his One-day International debut four years ago.
Pollard has become a millionaire out of the game, despite never having played a Test match – his explosive hitting earning him year-round work in various Twenty20 leagues around the world.
Only this week, he signed with the Adelaide Strikers to play in Australia’s expanded Big Bash League, but he said he now has an eye on a Test place.
“Test cricket is always going to be the ultimate,” he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “My ambition is to play in all three formats.
“Next year, I’m going to play more first-class cricket. I decided not to go to the T20 tournament in South Africa because I wanted to play first-class cricket in the Caribbean. The Sri Lankan league is off now, but I pulled out of that as well.”
This could spell good news for his native Trinidad & Tobago, and bad news for opposition bowlers in the WICB Regional first-class championship.
Pollard has a decent first-class batting record, scoring 1 247 runs at an average of 37.78 in 21 matches.
He said he was well aware of the criticisms that have been levelled at him because of his decision to pursue financial security over a meaningful legacy in the game.
“I’m pretty much aware of what is being said about me,” he says. “Most sportsmen say they don’t read the newspapers, but I love cricket, and I read everything.
“So I come across plenty of articles saying whatever they have said. They have made examples of me, they have done all sorts. But each person has their own opening.”
Pollard said his humble beginnings made his decision to establish himself in the way that he has done in the last few years.
“(I come from) a place where there is a lot of criminal activities, and stuff like that,” he said. “Coming from a family background with a single mother, being the eldest, I was the one who had to go to school in order to have a better life.”
Pollard too, like many West Indies players, bemoaned his treatment at the hands of the regional selection panel, following a modest entry into international cricket.
“It was disappointing how I was dropped,” he said. “Yes, I wasn’t performing. But afterwards, nobody called or said anything.
“If I had given myself until 25 and not made it big, I would have gone back to school and become a law enforcer. So my only way out was to get back into the West Indies team by playing for T&T.
“Luckily enough, T&T (also) had just qualified for the Champions League.”
Pollard said his life changed following a spectacular innings of 54 from 18 balls against New South Wales in the CLT20.
“The rewards came after that one innings,” he said. “It just got out of my imagination. I got a call from the IPL, something I had wanted to join before, but couldn’t get a sniff. Then a contract in Australia. Then an English contract.”
“I don’t think anyone who had those things coming towards them would not take it. With the situation I was in, with my family, it was a decision I had to make.
“People have said a lot of things: ‘T20 freelancer’, ‘it’s only about the money’. But my instinct is to provide and to play cricket. My two sisters are still at school, my mum is still at home, and I provide for everyone of them. I told my mum that she doesn’t have to work now.”
Pollard is in England to play for Somerset, who have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life T20.