Kieron Pollard to miss upcoming SA20 season after joining MI coaching staff

Kieron Pollard has reportedly informed Joburg Super Kings that he will not be available for the upcoming SA20 season, a day after being appointed Mumbai Indians’ head coach for IPL 2027. The former West Indies all-rounder was signed by the Johannesburg-based franchise for R1.5 million at the Oct 7 auction but has now withdrawn from the tournament. Meanwhile, MI Cape Town did not bid for Pollard and signed Shimron Hetmyer for the same amount.

JSK and MI Cape Town are sister franchises of Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, respectively, in the IPL. The two IPL teams share a long-standing rivalry and Pollard’s move to JSK had sparked a buzz in India. However, his withdrawal from the upcoming season avoids a potential conflict of interest in franchise cricket.

CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan confirmed Pollard’s decision to Cricbuzz and said JSK would look for a replacement.

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Although the MI management maintained that Pollard was free to play for another franchise, his presence at JSK could have created an awkward situation, with MI’s head coach representing a rival team in another league.

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The situation was particularly important after Pollard spoke about bringing back the passion at Wankhede Stadium and made it clear that he did not want to see fans wearing rival teams’ jerseys, including CSK’s yellow.

“My first task is… bring that energy and spirit,” Pollard said in his first interview after replacing Mahela Jayawardene as MI’s head 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 an 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.”