29-Year Old Pooran Retirement Surprises Cricket Fans, Chooses Club Over Country

Club versus country is an old debate in football in which the club game can at most times seem bigger than inter-country matches except perhaps in the World Cups. There are any number of soccer players who have given up playing the international game because they must satisfy, with their performances, their immediate employers, which are clubs. The Clubs may understand what loyalty to the country means, but they can be mean enough to believe that players owe them loyalty first as they pay their yearly wages and may have been responsible for spotting them and nurturing them. The fine West Indian striker – yes, there are new terms from soccer for batsmen these days — Nicholas Pooran has become an extreme example of loyalty to the club first in his retirement from international cricket at the age of 29. And the very next day he was named captain of the MLC league team MI New York. He has bowed to money in quitting wearing the colours of the West Indies in international cricket to play multiple leagues across the world in which he can make a good living without having to meet availability conditions that countries demand, especially during the peak season from November to March when their teams play a lot of international cricket. Pooran had just struck a six-hitting record in 2024, the year in which he made170 hits beyond the boundary and he had continued that rich form of six-hitting in IPL Season18 too. The fact is money calls and so does an easier life with less fierce expectations to fill when you turn up for a T20 league or Cup game as opposed to turning up in international cricket. Truth to tell, money is thicker than patriotism.