Hailing from a family of cricketing legends, it was no surprise when Pollock went on to become one himself. Son of respected Peter Pollock and nephew of the legendary Graeme Pollock, the junior Pollock went on to make his name as one of the finest all-rounders to represent South Africa.

With a heap of wickets behind him, it was no surprise that Shaun was introduced into the hard rigor of Test cricket when South Africa squared off against England in Centurion in 95. Shaun's uncle, Graeme Pollock was the chief selector at that time but there was no hint of any sort of favoritism regarding the debut of Shaun. An impressive first series was capped with his first 5-wicket haul at Cape Town. After a slow start, Pollock came into his own in 1998 scalping 69 Test wickets in 14 Test matches which included career best figures of 7/87 against arch rivals Australia in Adelaide. Consistency was Pollock's forte and his nagging accuracy and his ability to get zip off the pitch from any surface added to his charm.

Pollock was thrust into the captaincy role after the shocking exit of Hansie Cronje when the match fixing bubble burst in early 2000. Pollock was left to resurrect a country that was left demoralized and distraught with things that transpired during the murky dealings of its erstwhile captain.

Pollock started his captaincy stint in a solid fashion and brought some credibility back into the South African set-up with convincing performances. His bowling prospered with the additional load of captaincy. Pollock completed his first and what turned out to be his only 10-wicket haul in a match when he claimed 10/147 against India at Bloemfontein in 2001-02. He though suffered the ignominy of leading South Africa to a 3-0 whitewash down under, the 1st such occurrence post-apartheid.

Things went from bad to worse as South Africa failed to reach the Super 6 stage in the 2003 WC held at home. An apparent D/L miscalculation led to the hosts being knocked out at the group stages itself and Pollock was sacked as the captain with a young Graeme Smith taking over the mantle. Pollock continued to remain an integral part of the team and played his role as a senior to perfection. The advent of Dale Steyn meant that Pollock was relegated from being the main strike bowler to one of support. He cut down on his pace and concentrated more on a stifling line and length to harass the batsmen. Injury and lack of form though continued to hassle Pollock and he announced his decision to quit international cricket at the end of the international summer of 2008.

Shaun Pollock was a part of the Mumbai based IPL team and even captained it in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh. He was later appointed as the coach of the Mumbai Indians and was at the helm of the affairs when they clinched the 2011 Champions League T20.


By Pradeep Krishnamurthy