Star West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo revealed how he convinced Mumbai Indians (MI) to sign Kieron Pollard in IPL 2010 as his replacement.
After the services of Dwayne Bravo in the first two editions of IPL, Mumbai Indians needed a like-to-like replacement for the all-rounder and he recommended the name of Kieron Pollard.
Although MI first signed Dwayne Smith as a replacement, they switched to Pollard in IPL 2010 by shelling out a whopping INR 3.42cr. Since then, Kieron Pollard has emerged as one of the biggest match-winners for Mumbai Indians.
The swashbuckling all-rounder has played some blinders and won matches for his team from almost impossible situations and is one of the main reasons by the Rohit Sharma-led franchise is the most successful team in the history of marquee tournament.
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In an interaction with Cricbuzz, Dwayne Bravo revealed he gave Kieron Pollard’s name as his replacement but the latter was playing for the club so he recommended Dwayne Smith.
"When Mumbai Indians needed a replacement for me, I gave them Kieron Pollard's name. When they tried contacting him, he was playing for a club, so I recommended Dwayne Smith and he became my replacement," Dwayne Bravo told Cricbuzz.
Dwayne Bravo narrated how he convinced Rahul Sanghvi and Robin Singh for signing Pollard. He also recalled 19-year-old Pollard's stunned reaction to the massive contract.
"The following year, when it was the Champions League, I called Rahul (Sanghvi) and told Pollard, he's here. Come and sign him now before the tournament starts. Rahul and Robin Singh left Mumbai and came to Hyderabad, I'll never forget they came with a contract which at that time was 200,000 USD.
“I called Pollard, who came downstairs and met them both in the lobby. He saw the contract. Now for s coming from Trinidad, as a 19-year-old, that was wow. He said, 'Dwayne are you serious?" he said.
Bravo further said that Pollard made the entire world stood on their feet in the Champions League with his performance and everyone wanted to know who he was. He added that in mini-auction MI bagged him and today people can’t imagine a franchise without Pollard.
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"It so happened in that same tournament, Pollard was unbelievable. The entire world stood on their feet and applauded him. Everyone wanted to know who's this kid. When a shout came around that Mumbai already signed him, it was forced to go into the mini-auction.
"IPL had put up a clause that no franchise can pay more than 750,000 USD to get him and eventually Mumbai won the bid. You cannot see Mumbai Indians without Pollard today,” he concluded.
Kieron Pollard has represented Mumbai Indians in 171 matches, scoring 3191 runs to go with 16 half-centuries. The Rohit Sharma-led franchise retained Pollard ahead of the IPL 2014 mega-auction and the franchise used its Right to Match (RTM) for him in 2018.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
