MUMBAI: The legendary West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard announced his retirement from international cricket, calling time on a career that saw him feature more than 200 times across one-day and Twenty20 internationals.
“After careful deliberation, I’ve today decided to retire from international cricket,” Pollard said in a video statement.
He further said, “As is the case of many young persons, it was a dream of mine to represent the West Indies team from the time I was a boy of 10 years and I’m proud to have represented West Indies cricket for over 15 years in both the T20I and ODI forms of the game.
“I can still vividly remember making my international debut in 2007 under the leadership of my childhood hero, Brian Lara. Wearing those maroon colours and playing alongside such greats has been a privilege that I never took lightly,” he concluded.
Pollard was a West Indian trailblazer in white-ball cricket, becoming the first men’s player to represent West Indies in over 100 T20I matches, and also pulling on the maroon shirt 123 times in ODIs.
The Trinidadian was a key member of the team that won the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup in 2012, and only missed West Indies’ triumph at the 2016 tournament due to injury.
Pollard was appointed captain of both the ODI and T20 teams in 2019, with series wins over Australia and England the highlights during his tenure.
In total Pollard scored 2706 runs and took 55 wickets in ODI cricket. In T20Is he racked up 1569 runs at a strike rate of 135.14, while also picking up 42 wickets with his handy medium pace.
In March 2021 Pollard became only the third player in the history of the men’s international game to hit six sixes in a single over, with his effort against Sri Lanka’s Akila Dananjaya helping him into elite company alongside Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh.
Pollard is currently playing for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and will feature for London Spirit in The Hundred later this year after being the first men’s pick of the 2022 draft.
