ICC World Cup 2019: Kieron Pollard says he is hopeful of return to West Indies side

Kieron Pollard is all in news after his mind-boggling innings against Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. Pollard, who was captaining the Mumbai Indians team in place of Rohit Sharma, made 83 runs in 31 balls which included 10 sixes and led MI to the win from an impossible situation.

Pollard has been a permanent fixture in the MI side ever since making his debut in the IPL in 2010. This also brought an end to a lull period in Pollard’s career which saw him drop out of the radar of Cricket West Indies’ selectors. However, with changes in the CWI management, hopes of a return to the team have been rekindled. It has to be noticed that Kieron Pollard has not represented the West Indies in ODIs for over 30 months.

Pollard hinted that he is hopeful of making it to the Windies team for World Cup

“Yeah, of course, you can say that. We have a new chairman of selectors, there’s a new president of the cricket board (Ricky Skerritt replacing Dave Cameron as Cricket West Indies president), and as I said you take it as it comes. Last year, you might not have been asking me that question,” Pollard was quoted as saying during the post-match conference.

Former CWI president Dave Cameron’s controversial rules made it difficult for players like Pollard, Bravo, and Narine to play for the country regularly keeping in mind their T20 commitments. With him being replaced now by Skerritt, Pollard has hopes again of representing his country in upcoming ICC World Cup 2019. Pollard has played in the 50-over domestic competition that was made mandatory for the West Indies players to be in the running for the World Cup.

“I am a cricketer. I am 31 and have a lot of cricket left in me. I had people close to me backing me. 2018 is gone. When you are losing people have lots of opinions. I am enjoying my cricket once again. Yes, I scored runs tonight so all sorts of questions will come but for me, it’s just about enjoying cricket and doing my best with my God-given talent,” Pollard added.

“Every time I get the opportunity to play, I want to do my best. There has been a lot of turmoil in West Indies cricket over the last couple of years. We have seen in the last couple of weeks there’s a change. Pollard was one of the guys blacklisted. The most I can do every time I step on the cricket field is try to put runs on the board. There are people there who have the job to select and whatever and let’s see how that goes. As I said, I’m 31 years, Chris Gayle is still playing, he’s 39, and he’s whacking it all around,” Pollard signed off.

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