CPL reviewing Pollard no-ball incident

The Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) are currently reviewing the controversial ending of Sunday’s match between hosts Barbados Tridents and the St Kitts/Nevis Patriots at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown.

Patriots won the game by 10 wickets but the major talking point occurred at the end of the seventh over (the lone one bowled by Tridents’ captain and medium pacer Kieron Pollard).

The scores were level on 128, while opener Evin Lewis (then on 97 off 31 balls), was on the verge of completing the fastest-ever CPL hundred, and the second-ever fastest T20 century.

However Pollard bowled a no-ball to bring the game to an anti-climatic end.

In a media release issued yesterday, the Hero CPL said, “(We) are very concerned by any suggestion that the action of any player can be considered to have brought the game or the league into disrepute.

“Cricket owes so much of its unique appeal to the spirit in which the game is played and as a cricket tournament the Hero CPL understand the importance of fair play and good sportsmanship,” the media release ended.

When contacted for a comment last evening, ex-national and West Indies batsman Bryan Davis stressed, “It’s all part of cricket. I see no matter in what Pollard did. I don’t see any big thing in that. I don’t know why he should give (Lewis) a hundred.”

Asked what he would have done if he was in Lewis’ shoes, Davis responded, “What would I feel? I feel I could have made the hundred. I’m not looking for sentimentality.”

He added, “(Lewis) could have hit the no-ball. (Pollard) just surprised him (with the bouncer) and he ducked.”

However, if he was in Pollard’s position, Davis noted, “I’m a competitor. No wickets are down, one run to win, I would have bowled a no-ball myself.

“The only thing that made it a point to argue was because he was on 97,” Davis added. “What would have happened if (at that moment) he was on 80?”