Guyanese all-rounder Keemo Paul got married in August 2022 and gave birth to his first child in October 2022. Pol, 24, expressed his views in an exclusive interview with Brandon Corlette.
“The joy is immense! I must give God thanks and praise. This year has been awesome for me. I have been blessed with a child (and) I am happily married. It is great, I really can’t complain. It is an overwhelming feeling, I really cannot put it in words, but I feel very privileged.”
Paul is currently staying in Sri Lanka and is looking forward to returning home on Christmas Eve.
“I should get home Christmas evening, so I look forward to spend time with my family. I have been away for a month now, so I missed my family a lot. I missed my newborn a lot, so I just look forward to spend quality time with him and my immediate family.”
“Christmas will be pretty simple. Me and my wife will be planning to do some hampers to give to less fortunate. Hopefully, we can bring some smiles to people, and that will mean the world to me this Christmas.”
In this year’s CPL, Paul injured his left ankle in the match against Barbados, and he only played as a batsman in the CPL.
“About the injury, in the CPL against Barbados I sprained my left ankle, the deltoid ligament in my left ankle. That took some time, as you know. The physio of Guyana Amazon Warriors, Jason Pilgrim, sent a programme and I had some work to do, and then Neil Barry Jr. helped me out.”
“That was a very delicate area, that is where the pressure goes when you bowl. Even now, I still take precaution and strap my ankle and stuff. Other than that, my body is in excellent shape.”
Paul, who finished the 2022 regional four-day championship as the leading pace bowler with 20 wickets in nine innings, said he enjoyed playing first-class cricket and was focused on enjoying his game.
“The Regional First-class season, what worked for me was finding back the joy in cricket. Just enjoying cricket, enjoying being on the park. I think that goes a long way. When you enjoy what you do, it becomes so much easier (that) it takes the stress of it away.”
Also, he further mentioned that he is paying more attention to batting because there is not much bowling.
“I worked hard on my batting (since I was not bowling too much), it came out really good. I took the time to do some extra work on my batting, and that has been paying off thus far. I am pleased, but I want to keep moving forward with my batting, and I am very confident.”
“I want to keep working on my defence, rotation of strike, and playing spin as good as possible. That is my aim. I can strike the ball already, so now I try to work on my touch game.”
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“Playing inter-county was great this year. I was excited. The ankle was not 100%, but I had to go out there and represent. To see the guys won the first game, it made me really excited to go out and play. It was a joy for me. I played inter-county pretty young, and I remembered the joy when I scored my first 50.”
Sharing his feelings about playing in the T20 league, Paul said that he also expects to be a consistent all-rounder when he returns to West Indies.
“Playing in different franchises and different leagues helps a lot. You get to understand different conditions, and you get to test yourself and ability. It is also tough being away from family, but the exposure is good; everything comes with challenges.”
“Currently I am focused on the present. Whatever cricket I am playing, I want to do my best and take it step by step. Whenever I am selected for the West Indies, I will try my best to perform, but I am staying in the present at the moment.”
“I do look forward to playing for the West Indies and making an impact, that is something I really want to do, to contribute and be a stable all-rounder in the West Indies team.”