Kieron Pollard has pulled out of the 2027 SA20 season after informing his franchise, Joburg Super Kings. His decision comes only hours after he was appointed the Mumbai Indians head coach in the IPL. Pollard was bought by JSK for R1.5 million at the SA20 auction earlier this month, after MI Cape Town opted against bidding for him and instead signed Shimron Hetmyer for the same amount.
JSK and MI Cape Town are sister franchises of Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians, respectively, in the IPL, which are historic rivals. Pollard’s switch to JSK naturally sent shockwaves in India. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan confirmed Pollard’s decision to Cricbuzz and said the franchise would look for a replacement.
While the MI management maintains that Pollard
was free to play for another franchise, it would have led to a rather awkward situation for all involved if MI’s head coach was playing for its rival franchise in another league. This was especially crucial after he made a clarion call to restore the passion at Wankhede, making clear that he would not want to see rival jerseys at the ground, including CSK’s ‘yellow’.
“My first task is… bring that energy and spirit,” he said in his first interview after replacing Mahela Jayawardene as MI’s coach. “That when you walk into the Wankhede Stadium, you are not seeing the yellows and the reds and stuff like that,” he said in the interview on MI’s YouTube channel. “You want to see that blue flag flying, and you want to see that passion and spirit from the fans. And that can only come firstly from us. So that’s where our work sort of starts—in terms of understanding what we are playing for and who we are playing for. We recognise the fact that we have not been where we wanted to be in the last couple of years.”
