PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Champion former leg-spinner Samuel Badree and Trinidad and Tobago Red Force head coach, David Furlong, believes the pressure of playing cricket amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could have played a role in Kieron Pollard’s decision to quit international cricket.
The 34-year-old on Wednesday announced he was calling time on his West Indies career after featuring in 123 One-Day Internationals and 101 Twenty20 Internationals.
“[It will] be all speculation from me, not having any intimate knowledge, but certainly his injury with his knee, certainly with COVID and bubble life, [and] the pressures that come with captaincy,” Badree, who featured on the same side as Pollard which won the 2012 T20 World Cup, told the local news.
“[The West Indies] performances in white-ball cricket, particularly the recent World Cup, have not been the best. Considering all those things, I think he came up with his decision.”
Kieron Pollard … has played in COVID-19 ‘bubbles’ since the pandemic.
Furlonge, who said he had known Pollard since the player’s early teens, echoed similar sentiments.
“It’s a feeling I’ve had since the beginning of this IPL (Indian Premier League), not during this IPL. He has given his all for West Indies,” Furlonge said.
“I think he’s probably reached a point, especially in the past couple of years with the COVID and the bubbles, and he’s a powerful family man. That could’ve taken a toll over the past couple of years.”
Since the onset of COVID two years ago, tournaments have been conducted within bio-secure bubbles, with players being forced to have minimum contact with the public.
Testing, quarantine periods, and travel restrictions have also significantly impacted player wellbeing.
Pollard’s retirement came as a shock, especially with West Indies gearing up for the Twenty20 World Cup later this year in Australia.
The Trinidadian, who has led West Indies in the white-ball format since 2019, oversaw West Indies’ wretched performance in last year’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates when the two-time champions managed a single win in five first-round games.
West Indies are set to tour the Netherlands at the end of next month and then travel to Pakistan for another series shortly afterward. Badree believes Nicholas Pooran will be the front-runner to replace Pollard as captain.
“He has been the vice-captain of the T20 team and, with the experience he has now, in franchise cricket around the world, and the fact that the West Indies selectors have given him the vice-captaincy in terms of succession planning, he’ll come to mind from the T20 standpoint,” said Badree, now a respected media pundit and coach.
“I know Shai Hope was the vice-captain of the ODI team. So, if you’re looking at separate captains, you have those two, but if you’re looking at a singular captain, maybe Nicholas Pooran can be the captain of both [team].”
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