Nicholas Pooran: (on his and LSG’s season so far) It’s been a tough one. We’ve tried different things this year in hope of getting better and getting better results, and it hasn’t worked out initially for us. But every good franchise continues to try different things to get that end result. It’s unfortunate that we found ourselves in a situation where we have to continue to rebuild and just build for the next year.
(on his own form this season) There’s no secret about it. Obviously, I didn’t start the tournament well. In all fairness as well, I haven’t been good enough and that’s something that I’ve accepted. I’ve accepted all the criticism that came with it as well. But this is how the game goes for batters and bowlers. Sometimes you perform, sometimes you don’t. When you get yourself in positions like that, it’s all about trusting yourself and having a game plan. I don’t want to point a finger, but it’s just been tough initially for me.
(on retiring from international cricket and focusing on franchise cricket) Actually not. I’ve been playing franchise cricket for a long while and whilst playing franchise cricket, I have been playing international cricket as well. I’ve heard all the comments about Nicky P walking away from international cricket and stuff. I’ve played the last nine years, I’ve played 160-something games internationally. It’s just unfortunate that I haven’t got the runs that I’m accustomed with and the amount of sixes I’ve been hitting. But my preparation is the same. The facilities in South Africa and Dubai are actually better than where we come from in the Caribbean, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse. But I will be held accountable. I am a person who judges myself really hard. I just accept that this is one of the moments where I haven’t been good and accept the criticism with it. At the end of the day, I try to get back to my best self and prove people wrong again.
(on what LSG wanted to achieve after being knocked out of playoff contention) Honestly, it’s all about pride and just figuring out what’s going to work for us. Obviously, we got into a difficult situation halfway through the tournament and we just changed the batting line-up. We went back to something that really worked for us and that has been working for us in the last couple of games. So it’s nice to really get back into a rhythm of how we actually want to go about batting in the powerplay and obviously in the middle overs as well.