Dubai: West Indies all-rounder Rovman Powell, who is set to make his international debut here during this [T20] series, is a cricketer who rose from poverty to clinch a place on the national team. He may be the son of a single parent, but Powell’s mother encouraged his love for cricket.

After a training session, Powell talked about his dream of wanting to give back to his mother for all the effort she had put in for him.

“I’m from a small but humble background, single parent being my mom so what I do is try to use my life to pay her back for all she’s done for me. I’ve grown up and experienced a lot of hardships, I’ve experienced poverty and that is my driving force. Going forward I want to make sure that my mom is taken care of, that is my dream, that is my aim.”

There was a time when this Jamaican used to skip meals to make sure his mother and younger sister weren’t left unfed.

He did not want to die a poor man and worked hard on his cricket skills and made it to the Jamaica Tallawahs team in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

One of the happiest moments of his life was when he could send money earned by playing of cricket to his mother.

Powell uses the tough struggles of his life as motivation to work harder.

‘Hard work is key’

“I’ve played under 19 in 2011, which was the first time I played for Jamaica. Recently I made my debut in first-class cricket for Jamaica and after that I represented the Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL. I think that hard work is the key thing that has led me this far. Over the years, Andre [Russell] has been a mentor for me, and Andre is doing good cricket wise so what I do is try to take a few things from him and let him teach me the game. He tries to pass on his experience and pass on his knowledge to me.”

For Powell, the happiest moment was getting on the national team. “Getting the call from Courtney Brown [chief selector] was the happiest day of my life. I know that dreams do come true.”

Powell hit 38 runs against Emirates Cricket Board in the warm-up match and put on a fighting 52 runs partnership to pull West Indies out of trouble.