Pooran grateful after winning his 1st-ever CPL championship

Trinbago Knight Riders Captain Nicholas Pooran registered his first-ever Caribbean Premier League (CPL) championship title in the tournament’s 13 years of existence. Pooran played for different CPL franchises in the past, including Barbados, Guyana and his home team, Trinidad and Tobago.
While these teams won the trophy prior, Pooran was not a member of the squads at the time of glory. According to the dynamic left-hander, he waited 13 years for this moment and words cannot describe his feelings.
“Thanks for Almighty. No words to describe this feeling. Waited 13 years for this moment. Before we talk about anything else, I just want to say thank you for the love and support to each and every member of this TKR squad. It is about getting the ego out of the way, we lost the last five years and a lot of things were said like: guys are old and their time is past and I guess every single person answered the call,” Pooran said.
“I’m going to start with Polly (Kieron Pollard), 38 years old or young I should say right! Every single person suffered injuries. fighting adversaries day in and day out and for me as a captain, I can’t ask for anything else.”
Pooran, who described playing cricket in Guyana as one of the toughest places to do so, said TKR had to win the trophy the hard way.
“We had to do it the hard way, and Guyana is one of the toughest places to play cricket in the world and we as players know that. When you are given leadership, you got to take responsibility and accountability.”“For me it is not about me, it is about what I can do for my team and I was not going back down and miss an opportunity. We have players who do a lot of hard work and take responsibility. I trusted my players even in hard times and that was important for us. This week was a really important one. It’s just the belief (that made it possible),” the TKR skipper posited.
He also expressed gratitude to the TKR fans.
“First of all, to the fans of Trinidad, this is for you. We have been waiting five years and we deserve every second of it. I have waited 13 years for this moment. My first season was for Guyana, I led TKR for the first time this year and we won,” he remarked.
Pooran finished the tournament second on the run scorers’ list, with 426 runs at an average of 42.6. He has shown growth in his leadership, especially in the final where he made the right calls and executed all the plans to win.
On Tuesday, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that each player on the winning team would be awarded with the Chaconia Gold Medal. In addition, Pooran and former Captain Pollard will be appointed Sporting Ambassadors for the twin-island republic.