Standard & Pooran's

New York made a tough call to phase beloved Kieron Pollard out of the captaincy, and Nicholas Pooran will be challenged immediately in his new leadership role.

Wednesday was a hard day for MI New York. Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai both bowed out of the Major League Cricket season 48 hours before the team’s first game to take a well-earned month off, leaving my preseason favorites without arguably the world’s best white-ball spinner and a very good allrounder who could shore up the middle order. Scoring runs in the middle overs is suddenly a less daunting task for opponents, but I still think they could pull off a championship.

In a time where tough decisions needed to be made, the Razors doubled down and named Nicholas Pooran captain as the successor to Kieron Pollard.

The timing of this worked out well. Pooran retired from the West Indies in all forms of the game on Monday to pursue the rockstar life in franchise cricket, which merits its own conversation later. Pollard, a beloved figure who will be associated with MI’s colors for many years to come in many countries, will turn 38 shortly after the season ends, was not a lock to play every day this season, and has already nailed down a major coaching role inside the Mumbai Indians’ umbrella of franchises.

Even without Omarzai and Rashid, Pollard is still not guaranteed a spot in this XI: he averaged 12.6 at a sub-100 strike rate last year in the middle of the order. That becomes a challenge for a team trying to assemble a championship-winning XI, even if that player is still handy with the ball and even if he’s an indispensable off-field asset to Robin Peterson and has a clear and enthusiastic future in the organization as a coach. The additions of Omarzai and George Linde likely meant a reduced role for Pollard, and passing the captaincy to another player - and fellow Trinidadian - only confirms that he may not see the field all that much this summer as he winds his playing career down.

From a brand-building standpoint, doing this in a controlled way rather than having their hand forced by circumstance is good marketing, and Pooran has immediate international cachet from his repeated success with the West Indies and in the IPL that presents the franchise as forward-thinking, with a clear vision and loads of influence because of who they have access to for the captaincy. It’s a name casual fans will know and die-hard fans will respect. We don’t hear about good branding or marketing very often, but this has been presented and handled well! It takes the sting out of losing two players who were set to play major roles to the setup at the eleventh hour.

That doesn’t mean Pooran isn’t under pressure, and that pressure likely rose after Glenn Maxwell faceplanted in his first game as Washington’s captain last night. In a network of franchises where championships are the expectation, Pooran now has to show the intangibles to match his considerable power with the bat. The bowling attack under his charge is a little weaker than it was 48 hours ago, and there are overs up for grabs in the middle phase of an innings where Nosthush Kenjige will lead the charge as the clear frontline spinner. Someone will need to pick up that slack with a couple of overs and the odd wicket or two.

Someone like… Kieron Pollard?

New York opens their season against Texas tonight in Oakland.

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Thank you for reading Stumps & Stripes! I’m kicking off this project that has been rolling around in my head for a few weeks right as the Major League Cricket season begins, giving this newsletter a natural launchpad to build out from. If you’re here for MLC coverage, check out my full-length preview of the 2025 season at the link below, which was written before Omarzai and Rashid dropped out.

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Coming up on Stumps & Stripes, I’ll have reaction from the opening rounds of MLC 2025 on Monday, plus I’ll highlight two young players who could play huge roles in the national team’s future. At some point, I might need to talk about what’s happening in Canada…