Daren Powell
Encyclopedia
- For the English footballer, see Darren PowellDarren PowellDarren David Powell is an English footballer. He will be a free agent after the expiry of his contract with Milton Keynes Dons on 30 June 2010. He is a centre back.-Football career:...
Daren Brent Lyle Powell (born 15 April 1978) is a West Indian
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who plays first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Jamaica
Jamaica national cricket team
The Jamaica national cricket team is the representative first-class cricket team of Jamaica.-History:The team's history lasts back to 1895, when they played three matches against a touring side from England led by Slade Lucas, but because of the distance to the other cricketing countries, Jamaica...
. A right-arm fast medium bowler, he has played Test matches and One Day Internationals (ODI) for the West Indian cricket team
West Indian cricket team
The West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
. Despite starting his cricketing career as a number 3 batsman, Powell is a genuine tailender. Powell has previously played for Gauteng, Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
, Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, and Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
.
Early cricket
Daren Powell's father was a cricketer. Daren started playing cricket when he was about nine-years-old, and his first competitive experience was playing for St Elizabeth Technical High School. Powell originally bowled off spinOff spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
, however when his club was a seam bowler down in a match he chose to switch his bowling action to fit the situation; he took seven wickets in the match while bowling seam.
International career
On 21 June 2002, Powell made his international debut. He took three wickets in the Test match against New Zealand while conceding 102 runs; his first wicket was that of bowler Daryl TuffeyDaryl Tuffey
Daryl Raymond Tuffey is a New Zealand cricketer who has represented New Zealand at Test and ODI level, and plays domestic first class cricket for Northern Districts Knights. He is playfully known as Daryl "Huffy-Puffy" Tuffey by his Northern Districts team mates due to his heavy breathing when...
. New Zealand went on the win the match by 204 runs. Powell made his ODI debut later the same year; on 3 December 2002 in a match against Bangladesh during the West Indies tour of the country. He conceded 34 runs from 10 overs and took the wicket of opening batsman Anwar Hossain
Anwar Hossain
Mohammad Anwar Hossain is a Bangladeshi cricketer who played in one Test and one ODI in 2002.-References:...
in the process of helping the West Indies win by 86 runs.
After taking nine wickets at 27.55 in the West Indies' One Day International series against India in 2006/07, he gained selection for the 2007 Cricket World Cup
2007 Cricket World Cup
The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, using the sport's One Day International format...
.
After poor performances with the ball in the test series against England in early 2009, taking six wickets at 69.33, he was dropped for the return series against England later in the summer.
Ironically, given his lack of batting pedigree, it was with the bat that he had proved to be relatively effective, frustrating England's bowlers as he helped his side hang on for draws to seal the series in the Caribbean 1-0.
A pay dispute between West Indies players and the West Indies Cricket Board
West Indies Cricket Board
The West Indies Cricket Board is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in the West Indies...
in July 2009 led to an understrength team playing against Bangladesh; in the 15-man squad, there were nine uncapped players and seven players made their debut in the first Test. Powell stated that he had been approached to bolster the team, but he elected not to play. However, when the Champions Trophy squad was named later that month, Powell was included in a group still badly affected by the pay dispute; he did not play in the tournament.
Later that year, it was announced that he had turned down other counties to sign a two-year contract to play for Lancashire as a Kolpak player, thus preventing him from representing the West Indies in the near future. Mike Watkinson
Mike Watkinson
Mike Watkinson is a former English cricketer who played four Test matches and one One Day International in the mid-1990s...
, the club's director of cricket, described Powell as "a strike bowler of international quality, who will add strength and depth to our bowling attack" and said that the team would benefit from Powell's experience with the likely absence of Sajid Mahmood
Sajid Mahmood
Sajid "Saj" Iqbal Mahmood is an English cricketer of Pakistani descent...
and James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
for parts of the season due to England duties. In February 2010, part-way through the West Indies cricket season, Powell withdrew from Jamaica's squad for "personal reasons"; he had struggled for form, taking two wickets at an average of 73.00. Nehemiah Perry, Jamaica's chairman of selectors, said "[Powell] has decided to take a break and won't be available for the rest of the season. It's not a situation where he got dropped or anything. He's not enjoying cricket anymore as a person."
Powell was released from his contract with Lancashire in September 2010, a year before his contracted expired. During his spell with Lancashire, Powell played in four County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
matches, taking seven wickets at an average of nearly fifty. He went wicketless in his four T20 matches, although he took seven in nine Clydesdale Bank 40
Clydesdale Bank 40
The ECB40, currently known as the Clydesdale Bank 40 for sponsorship reasons, is a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 and Friends Provident Trophy competitions...
matches. On the subject of Powell's time with Lancashire, Watkinson said "He has been a top bloke around the place but he hasn’t quite been able to seize his opportunity when he has had it".