Kieron Pollard was the joint-biggest buy - USD 750,000 - at the 2010 IPL auction, though the cricketing numbers were not in his favour. He was averaging only 11.30 in 15 ODIs and 17.20 in 10 T20Is when Mumbai Indians shelled out an exorbitant fee for the relatively unknown man from Trinidad. His match-winning promise, it appears, overpowered those meagre numbers.
And what Pollard brought to Mumbai's middle order - as a batting allrounder - made up for the occasional poor performances. He possessed the ability to change the match with a flick of his wrists - wrists that were so strong that a gentle whip took the ball beyond the boundary. He was also a handy bowler, using his guile more than skill to own the middle overs with his medium pace. Those two skills made him a mainstay - often as a marquee player - at Mumbai Indians, Adelaide Strikers, Cape Cobras, Somerset, Karachi Kings and Barbados Tridents over the past decade.
But those were the good ol' days. Over the past 18 months, Pollard has lost his place as a regular for Mumbai Indians. He has been overlooked by South Africa's newly-created Mzansi Super League - despite being named as an icon player for its precursor, the Global T20 League in 2017 - and won't feature in Australia's Big Bash League, possibly because of scheduling clashes with the Bangladesh Premier League. The BPL aside, the only league where he's a certainty is the Caribbean Premier League, where he took over as captain of St Lucia Stars in 2018 after moving from Tridents.
The only other team where Pollard has been a certainty is the West Indies T20I side. Since 2017, he has featured in West Indies' encounters against Pakistan, India and England as a senior middle-order batsman surrounded by inexperienced players. But his highest score in those eight games has been 14. Knee surgeries have prevented Pollard from bowling consistently and he barely bowls anymore. Are these the sort of numbers West Indies want from their most experienced T20 player?
Probably not, but their coach Stuart Law believes Pollard is much more than those numbers. It's Pollard's role as mentor, in a dressing room full of young CPL graduates still finding their feet, which impresses Law. In Lucknow, after the second T20I in which West Indies were pummelled by 71 runs, Law said: "With the youngsters in the squad, it's someone like Pollard who motivates them in the dressing room. Pollard isn't in the side only because of what he brings inside the ground. He's one of the biggest motivators of the youngsters."
With Dwayne Bravo retiring from international cricket, Pollard is the senior-most player in the side. But, at 31, his fast ball isn't fast enough, therefore making his slower balls much less effective. He has also failed to produce any match-winning knock in T20Is since his 24-ball 45 against Zimbabwe in 2013.
Law, though, still has faith in Pollard's abilities. He feels Pollard is "just a game away from reminding us why he's such a T20 force", but that is yet to happen under Law's coaching stint with West Indies.
Pollard has failed to be the catalyst that both he and his teams want him to be. He will also be aware that not everybody will be sympathetic towards him, especially in the cut-throat world of domestic T20 cricket, where teams are always hungry to grab the next young allrounder.
The West Indies team management and the selectors also need to figure out how to get the best out of Pollard. Pollard has proved that he is not only a driven athlete, but also that if you thrust leadership responsibility upon him, he often succeeds. In recent times, Pollard showed glimpses of his electrifying past, as captain of St Lucia Stars at the 2018 CPL. He was the sixth-highest run-scorer, with 330 runs at an average of 47.14 for a side that needed their leader to stand up after three disastrous preceding CPL seasons.
Pollard has got another chance coming up this year, against Bangladesh next month in three T20Is. With the West Indies selectors not so keen for him to be part of their World-Cup pool, the Bangladesh tour may be one of the last times we witness one of the heavyweights of 21st century white-ball cricket in action. Can Pollard find his mojo and reset the argument in his favour?
With stats inputs from Gaurav Sundararaman