From career-threatening injury to early retirement: The story of Nicholas Pooran

Nicholas Pooran retired from international cricket at the age of 29.

At the age of 29, Nicholas Pooran, the former white-ball captain of the West Indies, has announced his retirement from international cricket. He ends with 2275 runs in 106 T20Is and 1983 runs in 61 ODIs.

Pooran had not played in ODIs since the West Indies’ elimination from the 2023 ODI World Cup Qualifiers and had recently chosen not to be included in the West Indies’ T20I series against England. His retirement, meanwhile, is unexpected because Pooran only hinted at playing 100 more T20Is in November of last year, when he received his 100th cap.

Three years after making his West Indies debut against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in 2016, Pooran was awarded his first ODI cap against England. He was named the white-ball captain of the West Indies in 2022, but he resigned following a terrible T20 World Cup campaign in Australia.

In a home T20I series against Bangladesh in Kingstown in December 2024, he made his final appearance for the West Indies.

However, 2024 was perhaps his best year, as he smashed the most sixes in a calendar year (170) and finished the 2025 Indian Premier League with 524 runs at a strike rate of 196.25, including five half-centuries. Early in the following year, he was also anticipated to play a significant role in the West Indies’ preparations for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Nicholas Pooran was once told he wouldn’t play cricket again. Here’s how he beat the odds

In 2023, as Rishabh Pant was recovering from his near-fatal car accident, his now LSG teammate Nicholas Pooran would regularly text him with comforting messages, as he could fully relate to what Pant was undergoing.

For the record, 10 years ago, Nicholas Pooran himself was involved in a serious car accident. At just 19, Pooran had lit the U19 World Cup alight and was on his way home to Couva from the Balmain training center when he swerved to the side to allow a car to pass him and collided with a pile of sand.

He dragged the car back on the road before being hit by another car. He was in the hospital when he regained consciousness. He attempted to move his legs. He was unable to. Heavy casts were placed over them. He once asked a doctor if he might resume playing cricket. The gloomy expression on the doctor’s face gave him the answer. Would he run again? he asked. “Perhaps,” was the response.

He was concerned about his future as much as the excruciating agony in his legs—he had broken his right ankle and ruptured his left patellar tendon. His career was only getting started, and there were rumors that the national team’s selectors were considering him.

He was operated on by a surgeon twice. He had been his friend for six months when he was released from the hospital two weeks later in a wheelchair. Kieron Pollard accompanied him while he recovered from his knee injury. When they were able to stand, they both went for walks and runs.

Later, Pollard referred him to Eddie Tolchard of Insignia Sports, one of the most influential sports agents in the business.

Pooran, through grit and talent, has gone on to become one of the biggest six-hitters in T20 cricket. He has 9166 runs in 398 T20 matches. He has three centuries and 56 fifties with the best score of 102* and a strike rate of 150.33.

In IPL, he has 2293 runs in 90 matches at a strike rate of 168.97 and a best score of 87* with 14 fifties to his name. More interestingly, he has hit 639 sixes in T20 cricket, and 167 of those have come in the IPL only.

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