PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)– West Indies one-day specialist Kieron Pollard says he is looking forward to the prospect of playing with the innovative pink balls in the Regional Four-Day Championship starting later this week. The big-hitting right-hander will line up for Trinidad and Tobago when they face Combined Campuses and Colleges in Barbados at the 3W’s Oval.
“I am excited to be on the Trinidad and Tobago team for this weekend. I have never played a match with the PINK ball before so for me this is something special,” said Pollard.
“It has a special feel about it. There is great expectation among the team members. I have played a lot with the white ball and with the red ball but this (pink ball match) is something very new for me and that makes it quite exciting.”
He continued: “A few guys in the team have played with the pink ball before but this is the first day/night first-class match for me and I’m really looking ahead to the experience.
“We had a couple of training sessions with the ball but there has not been much movement for the bowlers, so it could favour the batsmen. For me, it is just a matter of making the adjustment and playing it as I see it. I’m looking to start with a bang!”
Despite his label as a Twenty20 specialist, Pollard boasts a pretty decent record in four-day cricket for T&T.
He has played 21 matches since making his debut against Barbados five years ago, hammering 1 274 runs at an average of 37.74 with three centuries.
And after having played a key role in helping T&T win the Caribbean Twenty20 earlier this month, Pollard said he would be focusing his energies on the longer form of the game.
“I enjoy playing all formats of the game – T20, 50-over and the two-innings version, I enjoy it all. I had a job to do in the Caribbean T20 and I was happy with the way I played and the way we played as a team. Winning was our focus and we were happy to achieve our goals and objectives,” Pollard said.
“I am confident we can make a smooth transition from the T20 format to the four-day format. We are a close unit and we play for each other. As a professional you are expected to switch from one format to the next and perform at the high level.
“Once we get out on the field and start to run around in the white clothes I am sure everything will fall into place.”
The game will be a day/night affair which bowls off at 15:30hrs on Friday.