Nicholas Pooran throws pizza party for West Indies teammates after bumper IPL payday

Nicholas Pooran secured an INR 10.75 crore Indian Premier League (IPL) payday after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bid the highest to secure his services in the IPL auction last week. Elated with the IPL contract, Pooran gave his teammates a pizza party inside the bio-bubble, ordering 15 pizzas that cost him INR 15,000.

Pooran had endured an abysmal IPL 2021 season for Punjab Kings scoring 85 runs at a poor average of 7.72 and in the ongoing series against India, his performances have been below par. But despite his poor run, however, the franchises went all out for the right-hander with SRH eventually succeeding in his signature.

"Since outside food is not allowed he placed the order at the hotel chef for 15 pizzas," the local manager told PTI.

As the team is in a grade one bio-bubble, everything had to be sanitised and even the temperature had to be maintained.

"It needed to be vetted by a qualified chef. Since it's a strict grade one bio bubble we have to tell the food temperature and how it is sanitised and then only it goes to the room.

"There were a total of 15 pizza boxes and everything was sanitised before being delivered to the room. The player had to make the payment," he said.

A day after the pizza treat, Pooran got a shock inside the team hotel, thanks to the strict bio-bubble security.

Facing trouble with his phone charger, he requested for a spare one which had to be sanitised and he got a mild shock when he put it in the socket.

"When he put it in the socket, he was shaken by a mild shock," said the team manager. "Sanitiser contains alcohol and probably it did not dry up properly when he plugged it to get a jolt."