Another overseas T20 assignment for James Vince as West Indian all-rounder prepares for global cricketing milestone

West Indian Kieron Pollard will be making his 500th appearance in a major T20 game when he steps out for Peshawar against Karachi Kings in a Pakistan Super League group match.

Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson should be among Pollard’s team-mates for the landmark occasion.

Pollard is the first international cricketer to ever reach that milestone in the shortest form of the game, according to stats website cricketarchive.com

In addition to his international commitments, Pollard has also played T20 cricket for 16 different teams across the globe.

The 32-year-old has been a regular in the richest league of them all - the Indian Premier League - and also appeared in the Australian Big Bash League for three different teams and in a mixture of Caribbean-based tournaments for five clubs.

Pollard has only played for one English county in the T20 Blast - helping Somerset to two finals in 2010 and 2011.

Hampshire fans will certainly recall the first occasion, as Pollard was hit in the face by a Dominic Cork delivery during the home county’s dramatic victory at The Ageas Bowl a decade ago.

Pollard will be making a third visit to England this summer, though, as he has signed to play for Northamptonshire in the T20 Blast.

The Caribbean ace is one of many cricketing ‘guns for hire’ that have emerged since T20 cricket exploded onto the scene.

Though first played in England in 2003, T20 cricket only really took off on a global stage after India won the first World Cup in 2007.

The Indian Premier League was introduced the following year, and quickly grew to become the best-attended cricket league in the world.

Cricketing fans of a certain age will forever remember the all-conquering West Indian sides of the mid to late 1970s and 1980s.

Though the Windies did win two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, it was their exploits in the ultimate form of cricket that earnt them their place in the pantheon of Caribbean sporting greats.

The likes of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes and three Hampshire legends - Andy Roberts, Gordon Greenidge and Malcolm Marshall - helped the Windies dominate Test cricket for years.

For the 1990s generation, the tale is the same for Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose.

For the current generation, though, it is a totally different story.

Pollard is obviously a wonderful player, but guess how many Tests he has played for the West Indies?

None.

Other major West Indies players such as Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo have been Test regulars - the former has won 102 caps - but they will almost certainly be better remembered for their T20 performances.

Bravo is the second highest T20 appearance maker of all time - with 450 - while Gayle is third with 404 games. Ravi Bopara is the highest English-qualified player in the list with 351 appearances - the seventh highest in history.

Gayle, meanwhile, is the highest runscorer in T20 history with an astonishing 13,296 from 396 innings.

Pollard is second highest, some way back on 9,967 runs - and he has made 53 more visits to the crease than the self-styled ‘Universe Boss’.

Gayle has also hammered more T20 hundreds than anyone else - an equally incredulous 22. The next highest is the eight recorded by Australian trio Aaron Finch, David Warner - coming to the Ageas Bowl this summer as part of the Southern Brave’s The Hundred squad - and Michael Klinger.

Such sensational statistics have made Gayle box office viewing around the world, which is why he has played T20 cricket for 22 different teams in nine different countries.

He has only appeared for one English county, though, having played eight times in two spells with Somerset in 2015 and 2016. In both summers, he hit a half-century against Hampshire at Taunton – an unbeaten 85 off 49 balls in 2015 (with eight sixes) and 52 off 39 balls the following year.

It is not just the cream of West Indian talent that have emerged as virtual cricketing freelances in the past decade.

Some of England’s leading T20 batsmen have also proven popular - among them current Hampshire skipper James Vince.

He has spent the winter playing T20 cricket almost continuously, first for Paarl Rocks in the Mzansi League and then helping the Sydney Sixers lift the Australian Big Bash title last week.

Now he is in Pakistan for his second stint with the Multan Sultans, where his colleagues include former Ageas Bowl colleagues Rilee Rossouw, Shahid Afridi, Imran Tahir and Sohail Tanvir as well as Bopara and Moeen Ali.

In all, Vince has played for six different overseas teams/franchises in T20 cricket – Sydney Thunder and the Sixers in Australia, Karachi Kings and Multan in Pakistan, Paarl in South Africa, and Auckland in New Zealand.

Due to his globe-trotting, Vince has now played 213 T20 games in his career - and only seven English-qualified cricketers have ever played more.

The 28-year-old has also scored 5,585 T20 runs - and only six English-qualified batsmen have been more prolific in the shortest form of the game.

No wonder Vince is in demand abroad, especially as he can’t win a regular place in the England side. Since making his international T20 debut in November 2015, he has only made 13 appearances - averaging 28.33.

Of his T20 runs, 3,837 have been scored for Hampshire (only Michael Carberry among other Hampshire players has passed the 3,000 mark). With 140 appearances, he is second in the county’s T20 list - but should overhaul Sean Ervine (144) at some point this summer.

Among other Englishmen, Alex Hales has certainly been in demand since losing his place in the England T20 side.

Since the start of 2019, the opening batsman has played in T20 tournaments in Bangladesh (Rangpur Riders), Pakistan (Islamabad United), England (Nottinghamshire), the Caribbean (Barbados Tridents), South Africa (Durban Heat) and Australia (Sydney Thunder).

He is now back in Pakistan and will be playing for Karachi Kings in the 2020 Super League alongside Chris Jordan and Liam Plunkett.

As for Dawson, this is now his fifth overseas T20 tournament.

He first played for Rangpur in the 2016/17 Bangladesh League, and last year enjoyed a second stint with Comilla.

In addition, this is now his third successive Pakistan Super League tournament for Peshawar, for whom he was a losing finalist in 2018.

The PSL final takes place on March 22, and if Vince or Dawson were to reach it they would have less a month before Hampshire’s 2020 County Championship season starts.

The county’s opening four-day game is against Kent at The Ageas Bowl starting on April 19.

If you’re counting down to the return of English county cricket, that’s in 59 days time!