One of the most sought after T20 practitioners in the world has decided to give up serious earnings, to give back to West Indies cricket.
Kieron Pollard, 32, has taken up the offer to be West Indies 'white ball' captain and will now miss a few of those lucrative T20 tournaments around the world.
On Sunday, the T&T Guardian newspapers broke the news of the Board's decision to appoint Pollard to lead both the ODI and T20 teams.
Speaking after the announcement was made at the Hilton Trinidad on Monday, Pollard said: "It's always a situation where you have to sit down and think about what is at stake. I sat down with my wife, family and close friends to come up with this decision and I have decided that the time has come for me to give back to West Indies cricket."
Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt said a player might always have to make a sacrifice but his board has made it easier for them. "There is a clear window for IPL and there is also a clear window for CPL. Our players will have no international cricket when this time comes around. Our CEO Johnny Graves and his committee did a great job in coming up with a three-year fixtures plan and this was passed on to the fixtures committee which I chair and we are happy to announce that we have a three-year fixture plan available for the players to see, so that they can discuss their availability with their agents for these T20 tournaments.
"I know that for players like Kieron and many others, representing the West Indies is the best feeling and we know that times may come when players would have a decision to make and a sacrifice to make as well."
Pollard was thrust into the role after a comprehensive review by CWI’s Selection Task Force into the selection process and system for all West Indies cricket.
Their recommendations were approved by the CWI Board of Directors at the quarterly meeting, held for the first time in Tobago over the weekend.
Selection Task Force’s four-month review benchmarked cricket selection systems around the world and incorporated feedback and contributions from current and former players, coaches, administrators, franchise CEOs and nearly 2,700 fans across the Caribbean.
As a result, CWI announced that they will be advertising the men’s head coach role with immediate effect inviting applications before the September 20 to have a permanent head coach in place for the forthcoming away tour against Afghanistan.
The new CWI selection system will introduce new team-specific selection panels for the West Indies men’s and women’s and Youth teams. This will comprise an Executive Selector (lead selector), a selector and head coach. These full-time selectors will be supported by a selection, analyst to provide performance data to support selection considerations plus a minimum of three scouts to ensure cricketers throughout the region is closely watched and evaluated.
A modernised, transparent selection policy will see players selected against six criteria: form and performance, fitness (based on a new approved fitness and conditioning policy), team balance, mental capacity, technical ability, and commitment.
The playing XIs will then be selected by the Executive Selector, Head Coach and captain.