Pollard committed to West Indies cause

Kieron Pollard has reiterated his commitment to West Indies despite becoming a Twenty20 cricketer for hire as he travels the world playing the shortest format. However, the allrounder added that drastic changes were needed to the way the game was run in the Caribbean.

Pollard drew an angry response from the West Indies Cricket Board after he declined a place on the A-team tour of England in favour of his Friends Provident t20 deal with Somerset, but he believes he was completely within his rights to make that decision because we wasn't on a retainer contract with the WICB.

"I don't want go into that too much, it's a fairly unique situation I found myself in," he told Cricinfo. "Things haven't gone smoothly in West Indies in recent times and a lot of things need to be fixed. But it was about me being a professional sportsman and I will always be committed to the West Indies team whenever I am called up.

"It's my dream to play Test cricket and that will never change," he added. "At the moment it is Twenty20 which has presented itself as my opportunity, but if the chance comes to put the whites on that will be a dream. I'm still young and would love to play for West Indies in all formats."

Pollard has been a great success at Somerset with 248 runs at a strike-rate of 177.14 and has claimed 20 wickets at 12.45, but he added the results of his county stint have no bearing on how he feels about shunning West Indies A. "I would have stood by my decision even if I hadn't performed well for Somerset. At the end of the day the decision has been made and I will stick by it."

He has certainly left a mark around the county scene. On his debut against Middlesex, at Lord's, he hit 89 off 45 balls which included a mighty six onto the roof of the pavilion. "It was big," he said. "I don't know how many metres, but it was a great start."

Pollard has taken his Twenty20 skills around the world over the last year. He was an overseas player for South Australia, has an IPL contract with Mumbai Indians and now can also add Somerset to that list. In a few weeks the West Indian domestic Twenty20 begins and, depending on his county commitments, Pollard is due to appear for Trinidad and Tobago.

"It's just the way it has happened for me," he said. "I'm not contracted by West Indies and the Twenty20 format is something that suits my game. I don't know how many more will follow, but some players might think of it as an option."

Trinidad and Tobago are the leading Twenty20 side in the region and will be early favourites to reach the Champions League which will be staged during September in South Africa. That would leave Pollard having to chose between his IPL team and his home team having already told South Australia he won't play for them.

"I'm looking forward to playing for Trinidad and qualifying for the Champions League," he said, "and if that situation arises then I'll make the decision who to play for. I'm going to give my all for Trinidad and Tobago."