A certain Kieren Pollard is here to compete in his very first Commonwealth Games but he is not a cricketer. The 23-year-old swimmer from Western Australia has attracted a lot of attention as he shares his name with the one of the biggest T20 stars to have come out of the West Indies.
However, the striking similarity ends with the name. Pollard the swimmer is supposed to take part in three events and raced alongside India's Srihari Nataraj in the men's 200m butterfly. Australia is always a runaway favourite in swimming at the Games and this edition is proving to be no different.
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Pollard however has a long way to go and is soaking it all on his first major event. “Such an honour to represent the green and gold,” reads one of his Instagram posts on the Games. His profile on the Western Australia website gives a glimpse of his character.
“It's the days when the body aches, the desire is low, you feel tired and you feel weak... those are the days when champions train.”
He considers his first podium at the 2019 Australian Championships as the fondest memory of his promising career. It will surely change if he is able to win a medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
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Connaught Place or Broad Street?
Dishoom, Lasan, Qavali, Pushkar, Varanasi, Sultan: These are the names of some fine Indian restaurants in the Birmingham city centre. The full list is much longer. A stroll down the Broad Street will make you feel at home with a host of options for Indian food.
Though Birmingham has a large Indian diaspora, the local population enjoys the Indian cuisine as much. The Indian men's cricket team is often spotted on Broad Street when it is in Birmingham. The women's cricketers are also following their male counterparts when it comes to dining at the Indian restaurants.
The cricketers went out for a meal following their win over Pakistan on Sunday. Since they are staying at the Park Regis on Broad Street, 'the ghar ka khana' option is always available.
