West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara has slammed the Windies Cricket Board and team management for not doing enough to keep players loyal to West Indies cricket. He even gavean  example of Nicholas Pooran, who retired from international cricket at 29, to pursue a career as a T20 freelancer.

In contrast to the initiatives of boards in nations like England, Australia, and India, Lara believed that this was the consequence of the West Indies Cricket Board's inability to provide incentives for players to stick with West Indies cricket.

“You have a lot of guys who are deciding on what to do with their careers. You have your aggressive players like Pooran, who retired at 29. And honestly, it's pretty clear why they did. There are five or six leagues around the world, and they're able to make a substantial amount of money playing in them," Brian Lara said on the 'Stick to Cricket' podcast.

"I have no problem with that. The truth is, I don't think the West Indies Cricket Board or the administration has done anything meaningful to keep players loyal to West Indies cricket, unlike what boards in countries like England, Australia, or even India have done.

So, naturally, our players are going to look elsewhere. And when you see players like Kane Williamson or even South Africans making similar choices, you understand that these guys are just trying to provide for their families," he added.

Nicholas Pooran’s decision to retire from West Indies cricket came as a big blow to them with just 8 months to the T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.

Pooran made his debut on the international circuit in 2016 and has since played in 106 Twenty20 Internationals and 61 One-Day Internationals, scoring over 4,258 runs in both forms.

In cricket's shortest format, he amassed 2,275 runs at an average of 26.14 at 136.39. With three hundreds and eleven fifties, he amassed 1,983 runs at 39.66 with a strike rate of 99.15 in the 50-over cricket match.