Sammy on Pooran's international retirement: 'More players will follow'

West Indies coach Daren Sammy believes Nicholas Pooran's shock retirement from international cricket underlines his challenge to "keep our players motivated to play for the crest", even as he predicts that more players will follow Pooran's lead.

Pooran announced his decision to quit the international game on Monday, at the age of just 29. He never played a Test, and his last ODI was two years ago. But Pooran is West Indies' all-time leading run-scorer in T20Is, and the timing of his retirement - eight months before a T20 World Cup - came as a surprise to many, not least because he is already a top earner in the franchise circuit.

But Sammy, who captained West Indies to the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cups in his playing days, said he had already started planning for life after Pooran before he had announced his decision. "My instincts told me something like that would happen," Sammy said on Tuesday night, after West Indies' sixth consecutive defeat on their white-ball tour to England.

"Nicholas sent me a text message, and so did I have a conversation with his agent as well… When we first spoke about the UK tour and the conversation I had with him, I did ask him, 'Are you unavailable for the UK tour only, or indefinite?' And from that response, I just knew I had to start preparing for the worst case.

"Ideally, a talent like that, I would love to have him in the team. But I don't control nor could I control anybody's careers… I wished him well, he wished the team well. It is [about] trying to move on now from planning a gameplan without Nicholas Pooran. With a World Cup coming ahead, I respect the fact that he told us early enough so we have more time to plan without him."

Sammy revealed, when asked about Pooran's decision, that he had spoken to his players in their team meeting before Tuesday's T20I in Southampton about his own pride in playing for the West Indies crest.

"Surprised? No, I'm not surprised," Sammy said. "I said something to the guys in the team meeting today: we don't have control. It's up to each individual. I made my debut in 2004 right at this ground, and I see here today in the stands the same people from 2004 - 21 years ago - the same fans: loyal, coming, bringing food, and everything they've been doing that way before I started, for Sir Viv [Richards] and these guys.

"The passion they have travelling from London, all over, coming to watch us playing - not because we are great, [but] because of the love they have for the game and for West Indies cricket; what it meant to them when West Indies came here back in the 80s with Sir Viv and Clive [Lloyd], and they won games; the feeling it gave them during that era, walking down the streets, going to work the following day.

"It is up to us, each individual, to understand what the brand and the crest means, and come out and play a brand that those people come and travel three hours to watch you play because of what the crest means to them. It is up to each player to go out and put in that type of passion out there. I could only speak about it, but I can't force anybody to do it, just like I can't tell anybody when to call time on their career."

Sammy also predicted that other players will follow Pooran's lead relatively early in their careers, citing the recent examples of two South Africa players who have retired from international cricket in their early 30s.

"I'm pretty sure more will follow in that mood, in that direction," Sammy said. "That's the way T20 cricket is now, and especially coming from the West Indies, with the challenges that we face trying to keep our players motivated to play for the crest, so I wouldn't be surprised. You saw everybody talk about Heinrich Klaasen, Quinton de Kock, these guys who've retired. It's out of our control."

West Indies struggled badly in Pooran's absence in England, losing 3-0 in both the ODI and T20I series, and will now return to Ireland for a three-match T20I series which starts on Thursday. Sammy said that his main concern was around his team's bowling attack, after they leaked 628 runs in 58.3 overs in the T20I series, including a total of 248 in Southampton.

"It's a question of skills," Sammy said. "When being put under pressure, do we have the skillset to be disciplined with our plans? Do we back our ability long enough? Especially from a bowling point of view, we've been trying to search: how do we restrict things when they put us under the pump? [...] It's a conversation with a World Cup in less than eight months: how do we get our bowling right?

"I think the batting will be more consistent. They have been over the last two years, but we can't keep asking our batters to chase down high-200s, and then when we set 190 or 200, our bowling has yet to defend it. But I'm a very positive guy… We have enough time and games to put a combination together that could help us be successful."