Till then,he was just a powerfully built giant from Trinidad with a yet-to-be-proven reputation as a big hitter of the cricket ball and a T20 sign etched on the back of his headas part of the hairstyle. But it took only 15 minutes,in front of a sparsely crowded Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad last October,for Kieron Pollard to blast himself into global recognition. The harder he hit the New South Wales bowlers towards and over the fence that evening,enroute to fashioning a sensational win for his team Trinidad & Tobago,the more anxious he made the franchises to come chasing him with a fresh and hefty contract for the IPL. Whether the first edition of the Champions League T20 managed to create a stir in international cricket or not is still out for debate,but what it did manage was to transform a previously unknown cricketer into an overnight sensation,and not long after,the most sought-out T20 cricketer in the world. And when the second edition of the 10-team event kicks off in Johannesburg,South Africa,on Friday evening,it will be Pollards dream-journey that a majority of those in the seven non-Indian teams will be attempting to recreate,keeping the high-stake IPL auctions scheduled for November in mind. Like Ramnaresh Sarwan with Guyana,most of the other teams bar Victoria Bushrangers power-packed like last year this time around are made up of a few veterans and a bunch of unknown faces,eager and expectant to impress the IPL franchises the three in South Africa and those watching back home in India. At the same time,it will enable IPL teams and their managements cast their nets on the talent on offer in the coming two weeks. Meanwhile,those cricketers who played 75 per cent of the IPL matches earlier in the year,too will try to use this opportunity to enhance their chances of retention or fatter paycheques. Eventually,whatever the organisers of the tournament or even brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan in the midst of his incessant roar say,it will be the fortunes of the Indian teams that will decide the overall success of the tournament. And with the games scheduled to be telecast at times catering to Indian audiences back home at five and nine in the evening it will be matches involving Mumbai Indians,Royal Challengers Bangalore and IPL champions Chennai Super Kings that will grab maximum eyeballs. The inaugural edition of the Champions League T20 remodelled Pollards profile from a potential match-winner for Trinidad to a multi-millionaire globe-trotter. Whether the second edition manages to make a significant impact on the cricketing world or not,it will be the perfect platform for yet another unknown name to script another cricketing fairytale. Mumbai Indians vs Highveld Lions Live on Star Cricket,5 pm onwards
