Nicholas Pooran's international retirement at 29, a wake-up call that must not be ignored

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The cricket world has been rocked in the last five weeks by a string of high-profile retirements, by superstars of different vintages from different formats of the game. It started with Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain, pulling the plug on his Test career on May 7, five days before his predecessor, the talismanic Virat Kohli, followed suit.
Their decisions weren't completely unexpected though when they were formalised, there was a touch of the sudden, leaving a huge gap in Indian cricket. These were followed by Glenn Maxwell bidding adieu to One-Day International cricket so that he could channel his energies towards the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka early next year, and South African stumper Heinrich Klaasen walking away from white-ball formats internationally – he had already retired from Tests – within a few hours of each other.
Rohit is 38, Kohli will turn 37 in November; both had long runs in Test cricket. Kohli earned his Test cap in June 2011 while Rohit's maiden appearance came in November 2013. The 36-year-old Maxwell played 149 ODIs and Klaasen, 33, represented South Africa 122 times in all three formats combined. Especially in the case of Rohit, Kohli and the injury-ravaged Maxwell, you could see where they were coming from. Klaasen was more of a surprise, though he explained his stance a couple of days back when he said, 'I felt for a long time that I didn't really care about any of my performances and whether the team won or not. That's the wrong place to be. I wasn't enjoying it that much.'
Joining Klaasen now in the list of former internationals – Rohit and Kohli are still available for ODIs, Maxwell for T20Is – is Nicholas Pooran, the extraordinarily gifted left-hander from Trinidad who set the first half of IPL 2025 alight with his sensational ball-striking for Lucknow Super Giants. What makes Pooran's call staggering is that he is only 29; since first playing for West Indies in September 2016, he has earned 61 ODI caps and played in 106 T20Is.
He is the highest scorer for the Caribbeans in T20Is, with 2,275 runs at a strike-rate of 136.39, has captained the team previously and was expected to be one of its bulwarks going forward at least in that format – he hasn't played an ODI since July 2023, when West Indies were dumped out of the ODI World Cup qualification tournament and missed the tournament for the first time since its inception in 1975.
Pooran's unexpected move has sent shock waves through the cricket world, reinforcing the hold of the various 20-over franchise-based leagues mushrooming around the globe and weaning away wonderful talent from the country vs country landscape.
The vice-like grip of these leagues isn't a figment of anyone's imagination or a monster perceived. It's neither the fault of the tournaments, provided they are stringently vetted and monitored, nor of the players whose shelf-life is limited and for whom cricket is a means of livelihood.
If an individual chooses to prioritise playing leagues as opposed to representing their country for various reasons, that choice must be respected because the easiest thing is to sit on the outside, without being involved directly and without being aware of the ground realities, and pass moral judgements that often involve the words 'greedy' and 'mercenary'.
Especially when it comes to the West Indies, the chequered recent history between the officialdom and players can't be overlooked. There was a period when the administration was so disassociated from the players that several established and promising personnel walked away without a second glance, disillusioned that they didn't find the support commensurate to the effort they put in to elevate the stocks of a proud cricketing entity that has now fallen on hard times.
South Africa have grappled with issues of their own, especially when it comes to the composition of their squads and their commitment to righting the wrongs of the past. The exodus of South Africans to England and other parts of the world to chase their cricketing aspirations is well documented, though to ascribe these same triggers to Klaasen's decision will be a little far-fetched.
While the easier option is to point the finger of blame at the players and their 'greed,' the bigger question that needs to be asked is whether cricket boards are doing enough to keep the players' fervour to play for their country burning bright.
It's all fine to invoke pride and patriotism, but without sounding disrespectful, that alone doesn't put food on the table. Pooran's exit isn't the end of the story; it could just be the tip of the iceberg and, therefore, should be viewed with the gravity that every wake-up demands.