Kieron Pollard says he was once blacklisted by Windies cricket board

The Windies excelled as a team recently against a formidable England side at home, humbling them in the Test series and drawing the ODI series from behind. At individual levels, too, Caribbean cricketers are delivering almost every day in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). While Andre Russell has been doing it with phenomenal regularity for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mumbai Indians’ (MI) stand-in captain Kieron Pollard played a massive knock against Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, slamming 83 in just 31 deliveries, to give his team a 3-wicket victory.

There has been a welcome change in Cricket West Indies (CWI) as well as Ricky Skerritt has beaten Dave Cameron to become the board’s new president. The change has reignited Pollard’s hope to make it to the squad for the upcoming ICC World Cup kicking off on May 30 in England.

Pollard, who played the last of his 101 ODIs in October 2016, said Windies cricket witnessed a lot of turmoil over the last few years and there’s a change in the last couple of weeks.

“Everytime I get the opportunity to play, I want to do my best. The most I can do every time I step on the cricket field is to try to put runs on the board. There’s people there who have the job to select (the West Indies team for the World Cup) 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 was quoted as saying by Times of India (TOI). The big-hitting batsman was one of the guys who was blacklisted.

Windies favourites at WC? Pollard doesn’t disagree

Given the Windies players’ superb form this IPL, many are saying the Windies could be favourites at the World Cup this summer even though they had to qualify for the tournament last year.

Pollard doesn’t disagree. “Yeah, of course, you can say that. But again, as I said that’s why there’s people… we have a new chairman of selectors, there’s a new president of the cricket board, and as I said you take it as it comes,” he said.

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