Adelaide Strikers' hopes of winning the Twenty20 Big Bash League have been hit with the news that Kieron Pollard will miss the competition through injury.
Scans revealed the Strikers' marquee import suffered a grade two tear in his right hamstring while fielding in a trial match on Thursday.
Pollard, the world's highest-paid Twenty20 sensation, was to have been the marketing and on-field centrepiece of Adelaide's campaign.
But Strikers coach Darren Berry said his outfit would simply have to manage without the big-hitting crowd pleaser.
"In a training mishap yesterday he strained his hamstring and unfortunately will be unavailable," he told reporters on Friday.
Berry was uncertain what would happen to Pollard's contract, which is of an undisclosed amount but believed to be among the Big Bash's richest.
The Strikers have also asked Cricket Australia to release their batsman Tom Cooper from his scheduled Chairman's XI duties against India so he can play in Adelaide's campaign opener on Sunday against Melbourne Renegades.
South African Alfonso Thomas will replace Pollard on a Strikers roster also featuring the Proteas' Johan Botha.
"We all know what an important player Kieron Pollard is to any Twenty20 side so we can't hide from the fact that it is a blow," Berry said.
"However we do believe with Alfonso Thomas and Johan Botha we have got two world-class internationals.
"And now it will fall back onto our middle-order players and we think we're covered there with our local talent and interstate recruits.
"We have got coverage - it's not Kieron Pollard but we have got what we have got and we move forward.
"It will probably just tweak our game plan a little bit."
Pollard helped propel the Redbacks to an eventual T20 title last summer with brutal hitting reaping 148 runs at a competition-high strike rate of above 187.
But Pollard did not feature in SA's successful finals campaign due to international commitments.
"We won last year's T20 competition and have proven we can win without him," Berry said.
AAP
Tags: twenty20, cricket, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia First posted December 16, 2011 14:13:08
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