They say that the lottery, like lightning, never strikes twice. Kieron Pollard may be the exception to the common rule. He has hit the jackpot twice, the first time with the Stanford Superstars as a member of the West Indies team that beat England. It was rumoured at the time that young Pollard, from the poverty-ridden village of Tacarigua in the island of Trinidad, was one of the smarter ones who collected his prize on his million-dollar payday after the winner-takes-all $20 million face-off in the Caribbean while some of his colleagues trusted Sir Allen Stanford and invested some of their winnings with his bank that later went under as a Ponzi scheme scandal erupted.
The young man has hit a Bingo-like prize again in the form of the maximum possible $750,000 that the Mumbai Indians paid for him at the IPL-3 auction.
And this is for just the one season that he will be turning out in before all players go into another auction next year. Pollard is a member of the generation of emerging cricketers but in Las Vegas style he has already emerged as a millionaire. Only four years ago he was playing in the Under-19 World Cup for the West Indies. He can thank instant cricket for instant fame and money.
He had an Indian initiation in the Champions League last year when he set the tournament alight with his six-hitting ability. An 18-ball 54 for Trinidad & Tobago against ultimate champions New South Wales was so ruthlessly powerful the IPL scouts would have marked his name in red in their notebooks. That innings also spelt another great payday for Pollard as the knock propelled his team into the final and prize money once again past the lucrative million-dollar mark. In Pollard’s life, it not only rains sixes but also the greenbacks. There is none who will grudge such an entertainer – he also bowls tidy medium pace making him a most useful T-20 allrounder – his just desserts.