‘I wanted to enroll in Military’ – Rovman Powell recalls life-changing career advice from his PE teacher

West Indies’ devastating middle-order batsman Rowman Powell recalled the advice his physical education (PE) teacher gave him about his career.

Before joining the cricket field, Powell was initially an athlete. Powell also shared that he could have excelled in track and field or joined the military.

However, his PE teacher, Carlton Solan, played an integral role in realizing his potential by taking up cricket as a career option.

Once, Powell’s teacher had told Powell that he would be beaten if he was ever seen again on the field. Powell recalled,

“He saw me play cricket, he watched me over a period of time. One time I turned up for track and field training and he said, ‘May this be the last time you come for track and field training.’ I had a shock. He said to me, ‘You can play cricket so good, track and field is not your calling.’ He told me that if I ever come back to track and field, he would beat me.”

“If you have your energy in two different places, you don’t get to focus on one thing the way you want to focus on it. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise.”

The explosive Caribbean hitter was to enroll in the military services when he was offered a scholarship from the University of the West Indies. However, his grandfather and great-grandfather also pushed young Powell to play cricket and further stated that he had watched the legend Brian Lara play on numerous occasions.

“He (Brian Lara) was everything people talked about. I watched a lot of Brian Lara growing up,” told Powell.

Powell has played 45 ODIs and 55 T20Is and has amassed scores of 897 and 890 runs respectively for the national side thus far.