Pollard: Bravo deserves 500-wicket milestone

CAPTAIN of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) Kieron Pollard is keenly anticipating the milestone that his friend and team-mate Dwayne Bravo is on the cusp of achieving, saying it could not happen to a more deserving person as he is someone who is always willing to share his knowledge and experience in the game.

Bravo, 36, has 499 wickets under his belt in 458 T20 matches since making his debut in the format in 2006. The medium-pacer, who is the leading wicket-taker in the history of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), is also one wicket away from reaching 100 wickets in the CPL.

During his career, Bravo has played in several T20 leagues around the world including the Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Bangladesh Premier League and the Big Bash League in Australia. Pollard, in an interview on Monday, said, “I think it is a tremendous achievement for him. As an individual no other guy you would want to be able to achieve such great things. He is jovial, he shares his knowledge and he does it time and time again. We as a team looking forward to him getting that 100th CPL wicket and that 500th overall in the world. He is gone where no man has gone before especially in T20 wicket in terms of wickets and it is good to see that we have another West Indian trying to achieve certain milestones. He is a tremendous individual and we are thankful to have him, so we look forward to celebrating that moment with him and obviously wish him many, many more.”

Pollard, 33, would have been on the field at the same time for lots of those wickets as he has played alongside Bravo for more than a decade. They have been team-mates for the TT Red Force and West Indies during that time. The Queen’s Park Cricket Club cricketers have had battles against each other during that time as Pollard has also played in most T20 leagues around the world. They have had some keen battles in the IPL with Pollard representing Mumbai Indians and Bravo lining up for the Chennai Super Kings. “Obviously I would’ve been part of that 500 as well. So again, sharing that with him, being on the same team with him and hopefully it is many more for us throughout the CPL campaign.”

Bravo will be eyeing his 500th wicket when TKR play St Lucia Zouks in the 2020 CPL at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair at 10 am, on Wednesday.