(CMC) Kieron Pollard will lead the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in the upcoming 2020 Hero Caribbean Premier League. This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Red Chillies Entertainment Venky Mysore the owners of the team on Thursday.
Regular captain Dwayne Bravo has been demoted to vice-captain. Pollard took over the helm after Bravo got injured on the eve of the 2019 tournament.
Bravo was struck on the hand during a net session and Pollard who was bought from the St. Lucia Zouks took over.
The West Indies captain saw the TKR through a successful run until the playoffs where they fell to eventual champions Barbados Tridents.
Before 2019, Bravo took the team to back to back titles in 2017 and 2018. Pollard who is the West Indies white-ball captain will control the team for the tournament this year, where all matches are to be played in Trinidad and Tobago.
Mysore said: “We are happy that Kieron who is the West Indies captain is our leader at TKR. The champion DJ Bravo has been coming to me year after year and asking me to give someone else the captaincy because he wants to just concentrate on playing and enjoying the game. I always told him not until I am ready and that time has come and he is very happy to play under Pollard.
“They are great friends and they will both come together to give us the best chance at the CPL this year. Bravo said he has played under Pollard before and this will be the best thing at this time for all parties. Pollard was kind enough to accept the position to lead the team at the tournament. He said if we wanted him to do it he will and we said that we will be delighted to have him as captain again.”
Manager of the team Colin Borde said it will work fine in having Pollard and Bravo in the leadership roles. “Having Kieron Pollard as captain is wonderful for us. He has played 501 T 20 games, is the captain of West Indies in white-ball cricket, has won two World Cups, two Champion Leagues, Cpl and just about every tournament on the planet. His vast experience can only work well for TKR.
“With Dwayne Bravo now as vice-captain to assist, we could not have asked for a better duo to lead this team in 2020. Both are global superstars with very successful careers.
“The friendship and mutual respect that they both have as teammates and from teammates will be very important when they team up to strategise. Both Bravo and Pollard have captained each other at the local and international level and so are very comfortable working together and sharing information. Both are extremely accomodating in their approach to leadership.”
Borde said the team will go into the camp from August 3 to 8 and training will commence from August 11 to 15.
The international players left JFK on Thursday for St. Lucia where they will join other international players on a charter flight to Trinidad on August 3. Mysore said all arrangements have been made in terms of getting the foreign players in except Sikander Raza the Zimbabwean. They are still working out the logistics and hoping to get him into St. Lucia by August 1 to join up with the rest of the squad.
The tournament gets off on August 18 with TKR coming up against Guyana Amazon Warriors in the first match of the tournament at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
