Nass­er Khan

Kieron Pol­lard is Trinidad and To­ba­go's crick­et­ing su­per­star, the most sought af­ter pro­fes­sion­al crick­eter in the Twen­ty/20 for­mat of the game that has tak­en the world by storm. Tow­er­ing over six feet tall, the unas­sum­ing 24-year-old has made a name for him­self like no oth­er with the unique gift of be­ing able to hit a crick­et ball hard­er and clean­er than any­one else in the world. He al­so bowls an ac­cu­rate and eco­nom­i­cal medi­um pace and is one of the most elec­tri­fy­ing field­s­men in the game. In the crick­et world dom­i­nat­ed by the short­er for­mat of the game, this makes him the most valu­able hu­man as­set around. These days there are a num­ber of teams he shares his tal­ent with-Trinidad and To­ba­go, West In­dies, Mum­bai In­di­ans, South Aus­tralia and Som­er­set and even finds him­self play­ing for one or the oth­er against an­oth­er.

It was at Hy­der­abad, In­dia, in Oc­to­ber 2009-the night that changed Pol­lard's life-when he came in to bat, the T&T team was strug­gling in what was thought to be a lost cause, need­ing 80 runs from sev­en overs to beat Aus­tralia's New South Wales. Less than half an hour lat­er, T&T had won with nine balls to spare. Pol­lard fin­ished with 54 off 18 balls in­clud­ing 47 off his last 11, to snatch vic­to­ry from the jaws of de­feat. It was one of the most as­ton­ish­ing dis­plays of hit­ting ever seen. "The re­wards came af­ter that one in­ning," he re­calls. "I got a call from the IPL...then came a con­tract in Aus­tralia, then an Eng­lish con­tract. I have been tru­ly blessed." The Sun­day Guardian caught up with the busy globe-trot­ting crick­et­ing su­per­star:

Q: Where were you born and where did you grow up?

A: I was born at the Mount Hope Hos­pi­tal and grew up in Mal­oney.

Who are the peo­ple who in­flu­enced you the most, in your ca­reer and in life in gen­er­al and how did they?

Stephen Bat­son, who in­tro­duced me to crick­et; Aslim Man­dol, my first crick­et coach; my mom and fam­i­ly; my own lit­tle fam­i­ly; Bryan Davis and David Fur­longe, both from the Queen's Park Crick­et Club.

At what schools/in­sti­tu­tions did you re­ceive your ed­u­ca­tion?

Mal­oney Govt Pri­ma­ry, Suc­cess Laven­tille Com­pos­ite and Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary.

What ad­vice would you give to the young peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go?

Hard work pays off, and don't let any­one stop you from achiev­ing your goals; and in the process en­joy good and bad times you may en­counter on your way to achiev­ing your goals. Al­ways re­mem­ber to put God first.

Some­thing that peo­ple gen­er­al­ly do not know about you?

Ha ha...that I love play­ing video games. What mot­to/cre­do do you live by and what is your recipe for suc­cess? I be­lieve that hard work pays off and every­thing hap­pens for a rea­son and noth­ing hap­pens be­fore its time.

Crick­et has tak­en you to many coun­tries...where else would you like to vis­it ei­ther to play crick­et or oth­er­wise?

I would love to vis­it Spain and France...if time per­mits.

Who was your hero or "idol" grow­ing up (fic­tion­al or re­al or both) and why? And who do you ad­mire most to­day?

Bri­an Lara for his flam­boy­ance, de­ter­mi­na­tion and the way he coun­ter­act­ed in pres­sured sit­u­a­tions. Chris Gayle for the way he in­tim­i­dates bowlers and the pow­er he pos­sess­es. Dwayne Bra­vo for his en­er­gy, his in­stinc­tive­ness and his "nev­er say die" at­ti­tude. M S Dhoni for his calm­ness un­der pres­sure, re­laxed at­ti­tude and ex­cel­lent crick­et brain.

What is your favourite pas­time/in­ter­est/hob­by (non-crick­et)?

I like play­ing foot­ball, hang­ing out with friends and play­ing cards.

What was it like grow­ing up in your fam­i­ly?

It was a strug­gle be­ing the first of three chil­dren, with two younger sis­ters, with a sin­gle par­ent so I knew I had to make it some­how in the crick­et­ing world as that's the field I chose.

When and how did you get in­to play­ing crick­et?

At a young age play­ing in the streets and car parks of Mal­oney and from watch­ing crick­et on tele­vi­sion with Stephen Bat­son, my step­dad. I fell in love with the game ever since.

What are some of your most mem­o­rable per­for­mances so far in your crick­et ca­reer?

One-twen­ty-six on my first-class de­but, 54 off 18 balls in the Cham­pi­ons League and my 94 World Cup for the West In­dies ver­sus vs Ire­land in 2011.

When and where did you play your first game for T&T, West In­dies?

That would be in 2006 in the Stan­ford Tour­na­ment for T&T and in 2007 for the West In­dies ver­sus South Africa in the World Cup.

Which crick­et ground is the best you've ever played on, out­side of the Queen's Park Oval, of course?

That was at the Mel­bourne Crick­et Ground, the MCG, in Aus­tralia

What was your first pay­ing job?

Ha ha, that was at the Of­fice Cen­tre Ltd, which seems so long ago.

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

There have been a num­ber but I must rate be­ing named Sports­man of the Year 2006 for Queen's Park Crick­et Club as very spe­cial.

What goals and/or am­bi­tions do you still have?

I would want to make my Test de­but, win a World Cup, score my first in­ter­na­tion­al 100 and own sev­er­al suc­cess­ful busi­ness­es.

Who and/or what are the love(s) of your life?

That would be our son Kaiden, my fi­anc&ea­cute;e, my mom, my sis­ters and close fam­i­ly and, of course, crick­et.

De­scribe your­self in three words?

Hm­mm...hum­ble, am­bi­tious and fun-lov­ing.

If you had an op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet any­one in the world, who would it be?

That would have to be the great­est bas­ket­ball play­er ever, Michael Jor­dan. I would want to ask him about how he dom­i­nat­ed a sport for so long and how he han­dled the pres­sures as­so­ci­at­ed with that sta­tus.

How are you han­dling all the fame and for­tune that have been be­stowed up­on you at such a rel­a­tive­ly young age?

It's tough but I have to be mind­ful so I am tak­ing it in stride, en­joy­ing every mo­ment of it and try­ing to put it to full use.