Rovman Powell

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rovman Powell

• Rovman Powell is a West Indies cricketer who has played for them and captained them in many international tournaments. He is popular for his six-hitting ability and explosive power.

• He had only his mother as his parent. His father wanted his mother to abort him during pregnancy which she refused following which he left her before Powell was even born. He grew up in poverty as his house in the Bannister area of Old Harbour Bay was in poor condition.

  

• His mother ran a bar for many years before it got shut down in 2009 following which she got a job in the cold room of the Jamaica Broilers company. During his school days, Powell also did small jobs such as a goat herder to make some money.

  

• During his early schooling, he made up his mind to use education and sports as a tool to make his family rich. He initially used to practice running and became a good track and field athlete. Once, his Physical Education (PE) teacher Carlton Solan saw him playing cricket and advised Powell to continue playing cricket and quit athletics to pursue a professional career. He was later given a scholarship to study at University of the West Indies (UWI) for his good performance in sports tournaments.

  

• He made a name for himself with his good performances in domestic cricket in Jamaica and the West Indies. He made his List A debut in 2015 for Combined Campuses and Colleges in the 2014–15 Regional Super50 tournament against Guyana and his first-class debut in 2015 for Jamaica during the 2014–15 Regional Four-Day Competition.

  

• Jamaica Tallawahs acquired Rovman Powell in the 6th round of the CPL player draft in April 2016. He was paid $40 thousand for the 2017 CPL season where he played alongside Kumar Sangakkara, Andre Russell, and Chris Gayle.

  

• Rovman Powell scored 44 runs off 29 deliveries on his ODI debut. He made his first ODI half-century on 20 December 2017 by scoring 59 runs against New Zealand in Whangarei. On 10 March 2018, he hit his maiden ODI hundred with 101 runs against Ireland.

  

• He made 5 runs in 5 balls on his T20I debut. He hit his first T20I fifty on 20 December 2018 with 50 runs against Bangladesh in Mirpur. On 26 January 2022, he scored his first T20I hundred by making 107 runs off 53 balls against England.

  

• He made 39 runs in 3 matches at a strike rate of 111.43 and an average of 13 during the 2022 T20 World Cup held in Australia.

  

• In December 2018, he was appointed as the skipper of the West Indies ODI team for the first time. After the T20 World Cup in 2022, he became the captain of the West Indies T20 team after the West Indies failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage of the World Cup under the leadership of Nicholas Pooran.

  

• For the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) acquired him for Rs 30 lakhs against his base price of Rs 30 lakhs. Delhi Capitals (DC) acquired him in the 2022 IPL auction for Rs 2.8 crore against the base price of Rs 75 lakh. He made 250 runs in 14 matches at an average of 25 with a strike rate of 149.70 during the 2022 IPL season.

  

• He became popular after the 2023 IPL auction when Rajasthan Royals (RR) acquired him for Rs 7.40 crore against the base price of Rs 1 crore for the 2024 IPL season.

• During the auction for the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) season, Peshawar Zalmi acquired him for the 2024 PSL season in the platinum category (between $130,000 to $170,000).

  

• In many interviews, he has credited his mother as the reason behind his success in cricket. He said that he always believed himself to be the man of the house and the terrace of his house had cracks through which water leaked whenever it rained, hence he used to stay awake and keep an eye on the water while his mother and sister slept. He also revealed that he was very happy when he started earning money by playing in university-level cricket tournaments and sent money to his mother.

  

• Powell idolises fellow West Indies cricketer Andre Russell and has called him his inspiration when he was training to become a world-class player. He worked on his batting and bowling techniques with the help of Russell and also did specific workouts to build his strength.

  

• His mother said that he was determined to help her and his sister by playing cricket and also praised his work ethic and temperament. She revealed an incident from his younger days and said that Powell once came home with a bat and said to her that he would take her out of poverty with the cricket bat. ^[10]India Today

  

• He watched Brian Lara’s matches with his friends and relatives and imitated his techniques.

• In an interview, he said that had he not been a cricketer, he would have become a soldier.

• When he hit his first ODI hundred in March 2018, he hit a six that broke the glass window of the Harare Sports Club, Harare. He returned to the window after the match and gave an autograph on the glass window.

  

• Powell was once asked by his teacher Nicholas Dillon to write an essay about his father when he was studying in 6th grade. Instead of writing anything, he started to cry as he never met his father and told Dillon that he did not know anything about his father. He later told Dillon that his mother raised him as a single parent, and he would never search for his father.

• In 2022, when he came to India to play in the 2022 IPL season, the airline officials told him upon landing in Delhi that his bags had not arrived due to which he had to spend 2-3 days in his hotel in a towel as he did not have any other clothes. ^[11]Times Now

• He runs a non-profit organisation named Rovman Powell Foundation. ^[12]Instagram – Rovman Powell Foundation He is often engaged in philanthropy and works with people for various social campaigns such as for orphan children and -people affected by natural disasters.

  

• He said in an interview that he mostly watched test cricket when he was growing up. He said that he was working on his skills as a batman and bowler so that he could play in test matches. As of January 2024, he was yet to make his debut in tests.

  

• Rovman Powell gained immense respect from his fans when he showed a gentlemanly aspect of cricket during the second T20 match of the series against South Africa in March 2023. He was chasing a ball going towards the boundary when he saw two children fielding on the boundary rope. In a split-second decision, he changed his body’s direction, letting go of the ball, and bumped into the boards. His fans liked his gesture and called him an ideal cricketer. ^[13]Hindustan Times