Having won the Indian Premier League (IPL) title four times, Mumbai Indians (MI) are certainly the most successful franchise in the cash-rich T20 competition.
Most of MI’s successes have come in the last seven years and one player who has played an instrumental role in it is – Caribbean all-rounder Kieron Pollard.
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Pollard has been donning the MI jersey since 2010 and was also a key figure in the team’s Champions League T20 triumphs in 2011 and 2013.
However, a few people know that Pollard’s West Indies teammate Dwayne Bravo was the reason behind Mumbai fetching the ace all-rounder.
In a chat with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, Bravo said when MI needed a replacement for him, he suggested them Pollard’s name. However, the franchise couldn’t secure the services of Pollard and instead bought Dwayne Smith.
But in the following year, when the CLT20 was going on in Hyderabad, Bravo proposed Pollard’s name yet again due to his stellar showing for Trinidad & Tobago. Bravo told the franchise to recruit Pollard at the price which the latter got at that time was of USD 200,000.
Narrating the story further, Bravo said he immediately called Pollard in the lobby after MI expressed interest in signing him up. As per Bravo, the young Pollard was left astounded on seeing the deal worth USD 200,000.
Kieron Pollard has represented Mumbai Indians in 148 IPL games so far. While the 32-year-old has amassed 2755 runs at a strike-rate of 146.78, he has claimed 56 wickets in the T20 league.
