Kieran Omar Akeem Powell (born 6 March 1990) is a

Nevis Nevis ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Saint Kitts and Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts ...

ian sportsman who has played international

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

for the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. He is a left-handed

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

. Having represented the West Indies under-19s at the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, Powell made his first-class debut for the

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

in March 2008. He was selected to make his

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) debut for the West Indies in 2009, against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, and made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

debut just under two years later, against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Powell scored his first Test

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

in July 2012, against

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, and later in the year made centuries in both innings of a Test against Bangladesh, becoming one of the youngest to do so. Powell was dropped from the West Indies team in June 2014, midway through a series against New Zealand. In December 2015, he announced that he would be attempting to switch from professional cricket to professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, pursuing a contract with a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

team. This switch did not come to fruition and in March 2017 Powell was recalled to the West Indies team.

Early career

Powell was born in Charlestown, the largest town on the island of Nevis (one of the two constituent islands of

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Less ...

). He lived in England from the ages of 14 to 16, where he attended

Millfield School Millfield is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935. Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding s ...

, an independent school in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. While attending the school he played for their cricket team, and opened the batting with future England batsman Craig Kieswetter. Having already played for the Leeward Islands at under-15 and under-19 level, Powell was chosen to represent his home island of Nevis in the inaugural Stanford 20/20 competition. On 14 July 2006, the 16-year-old Powell made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut in the first round match against St Kitts, batting at number 3 and scored 26 runs from 16 deliveries as Nevis chased down the total. Powell was moved up to open the innings in the quarter-final match against Antigua and Barbuda, and scored 21 off 9 balls, setting a fast scoring pace to the innings which eventually totalled the highest of the tournament. In the semi-final against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

he was dismissed for a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

as the team was defeated by 74 runs. Powell made his first

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

appearances for the West Indies Under-19 in the 2007–08 KFC Cup. The team was playing in the competition as part of their preparation for the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup. Powell made his debut on 17 October 2007 against

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

; it was a poor match for the under-19 team as they were dismissed for a record low total of 18, opening the batting Powell scored one run. Powell was dropped for the second group match but returned for the third and scored 2. In February 2008 the Under-19s made a short tour of Bangladesh in the lead up to the World Cup, Powell played in all three one-day matches against the home side scoring 44 runs from three innings. Powell's form improved in the World Cup itself as he scored 253 runs at an average of 42.16, including three half-centuries. He was second highest scorer in the tournament behind India's Tanmay Srivastava. Cricket writer George Binoy wrote: "the way he took a step down to the fast bowlers and lofted them straight reminded one of

Chris Gayle Christopher Henry Gayle (born 21 September 1979) is a Jamaican cricket team, Jamaican cricketer who has played international cricket for the West Indies cricket team, West Indies from 1999 to 2021. Nicknamed "The Universe Boss", Gayle is wide ...

". Powell finished the 2007–08 season by making his first-class debut for the Leeward Islands against Combined Campuses and Colleges in March 2008, he scored 85 in the first innings and 99 in the second, in the process winning the

Man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award. Powell was a regular for the Leeward Islands in the 2008–09 WICB Cup, playing in all five group matches he scored 79 runs at 15.80. In July 2009 the West Indies players were in a dispute with the

West Indies Cricket Board Cricket West Indies (CWI) is the governing body for cricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly Commonwealth Caribbean, English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that once formed the British West Ind ...

(WICB), so an understrength team took to the field. Amongst the players was Powell, one of several players who would make their international debut during the tour. On 31 July he played his maiden

squad to face Bangladesh. Opening the batting with Andre Fletcher, Powell was dismissed from the first ball of the match, dismissed

leg before wicket Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a Batting (cricket), batter can be dismissal (cricket), dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an Appeal (cricket), appeal by the Fielding (cricket), fielding side, the umpire (cricket), ...

by Mahbubul Alam as the West Indies lost all three matches in the ODI series. With the contract dispute still unresolved, the West Indies took their weakened squad to the Champions Trophy in September. Powell played a single match during the tournament, making five runs before he was out. He would not play another ODI for two years. When the players' dispute with the WICB was resolved in November, Powell was one of several players who were replaced by more experienced cricketers.

International breakthrough

After his first taste of international cricket, Powell returned to play for the Leeward Islands but periodically represented West Indies A. His progress was hindered by an injury in 2011, but in July that year (two years after he was first called into the West Indies squad) Powell was selected to replace batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan for the third Test against

. At the time Powell averaged 38.91 from 23 first-class matches.

, who regularly opened the batting for the West Indies, was not playing at the time due to a dispute with the WICB, so on debut Powell joined Adrian Barath (who made his Test debut in 2011 and was similarly inexperienced) to open the West Indies innings. Powell managed scores of 3 and 4 while the match ended in a draw. In October 2018,

Cricket West Indies Cricket West Indies (CWI) is the governing body for cricket in the West Indies (a sporting confederation of over a dozen mainly Commonwealth Caribbean, English-speaking Caribbean countries and dependencies that once formed the British West Ind ...

(CWI) awarded him a red-ball contract for the 2018–19 season.

Switch to baseball

In December 2015, it was reported that Powell had been training in Florida in an attempt to make a career change from cricket to baseball and in hopes of making it in

. In January 2016, Powell worked out for the MLB's

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...

and

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

Coaching career

In July 2019, he was appointed as the batting coach of the United States national cricket team on a short-term basis.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Kieran 1990 births Living people West Indies Test cricketers West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Twenty20 International cricketers Leeward Islands cricketers Nevis representative cricketers Nevisian cricketers Antigua Hawksbills cricketers St Kitts and Nevis Patriots cricketers Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club cricketers People educated at Millfield