I woke and could not feel my legs
WEST INDIES STAR POORAN ON THE CAR CRASH THAT NEARLY ENDED HIS CAREER
Four years on, Nicholas Pooran can now talk about his career-threatening injury as clinically as he strikes a cricket ball.
‘I was coming home from training, swerved and someone hit me,’ said Pooran, West Indies’ No 4 in their World Cup contest with England tomorrow, of the crash in his native Trinidad in January 2015.
‘I can’t remember much. I woke up with the car smashed. Then the ambulance came and prised me out. I was in so much pain, I just wanted them to knock me out.
‘When I woke up the next day, both my legs were in casts. They were numb. I couldn’t feel them at all. I was on painkillers throughout the 12 days I was in hospital.
‘The doctor told me he wasn’t sure if I could play cricket again. He wasn’t sure if I’d ever run properly again. My blood pressure kept going up. I was worried. I just kept praying, and that kept me going.’
Pooran had two operations. The first addressed the ruptured patella tendon in his left knee. Severe swelling in his right leg meant the repair of his fractured ankle was delayed a couple of days.
Both left significant scars, acting as reminders of the work one of the game’s rising stars put in to reach his first World Cup. For a large portion of his six-month rehabilitation he was confined to a wheelchair.
‘Mentally it was tough for me, heading into therapy,’ he recalled. ‘At first my muscles were very weak, so I had to get the strength back in my knee, then the physio had to bend it because it wouldn’t move at all, there was a lot of pain.
‘But although it was not the best experience, I feel like I am a better person and a better player because of that accident. I’ve learned a lot.
‘Sometimes I’d taken (cricket) for granted but now I want to enjoy every single game — I’ve learned that you never know what’s going to happen.
‘Whenever I doubted if I could play again, I told myself the one thing that could get me back was my mind. I kept believing.’
He kept his family and girlfriend Alyssa believing, too, telling them he would play for West Indies by the age of 21.
True to his word, his first cap came in 2016.
Then last winter, West Indies turned to a player who had lived off a diet of Twenty20: ‘I couldn’t say I wanted to play 50-over cricket when my body might only be able to cope with 40 so I made a smart decision. I had to get stronger, practice different skills and become successful in that form.’
Despite a six-month ban from Cricket West Indies last year for accepting a Bangladesh Premier League gig over domestic cricket, it has been a story of success.
Now 23, he was the standout batter at last year’s Caribbean Premier League and out-blasted all-comers at the star-studded T10 in the uAE last December.
Next month, he will play five T20 matches for Yorkshire and he wants to play in The Hundred next year.
More immediately, he has England and his former under-19 international team- mate Jofra Archer in his sights as Jason Holder’s team plot another bombardment of bouncers and big hits at the Ageas Bowl.
‘our players love to entertain,’ he says. ‘Everyone is seeing glimpses of the 80s, of how West Indies used to play, and we want to continue with that aggression.
‘Beating England in their own backyard would do a lot for our confidence but we don’t want to sound over- confident, saying we’re going to go out and beat England.
‘We want to do the right things and see what happens.’