K’Jhené, Nicky P's biggest little fan

AFTER falling in love with the game of cricket from watching matches on TV, four-year-old K’Jhené Francis wants to be an umpire when she grows up.

Proudly accepting the title of wicketkeeper/batsman Nicholas Pooran’s number-one fan, she recently enjoyed her first live Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 match and even got an opportunity to meet him.

Videos of the young Sangre Grande cricket fanatic watching CPL games at home went viral after her mother, Adriana Tinto, posted them to TikTok.

Her excited and often dramatic reactions while cheering on the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) had viewers in their glee. She would shout, “Catch him!” “Wey! Yuh see the wicket?” and say things like, “I want Pooran to score 100 million.”

Other times, she would just scream at the top of her lungs.

She told Newsday Kids she got interested in the sport after seeing her mother and father, Kristian Francis, watch matches together.

“I watched it with them and that made it so much fun!” she said, excitedly.

She also played cricket a few times at home with them.

She has watched CPL, IPL (Indian Premier League) as well as the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup. She said CPL is her favourite.

Tinto said she was impressed at how quickly K’Jhené understood the technical aspects of the game.

When she gets home from school ahead of a CPL match, K’Jhené ensures she takes a nap for extra energy to stay awake throughout the game. She also sometimes calls her father to remind him to be home in time to watch the matches.

She went to her first CPL match at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on September 22. TKR faced the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, winning by seven wickets with a final score of 197/3.

“It was so good and I had so much fun…I wave my flag, blow my horn, did (Dwayne Bravo’s) Champion dance and I shout for my boys,” she told Newsday Kids.

Of course, she was also screaming Pooran’s name once he came on the field.

Asked why he is her favourite, she said, “Because he does bat all the sixes and fours.”

In one of their TikTok videos, she candidly told Tinto that Pooran is “the best man in the whole wide world.” (Sorry, dad).

She also likes “Polly” (Kieron Pollard), “Russell Muscle” (Andre Russell) and Akeal Hosein.

Several people had been sending TKR the duo’s TikTok videos in hopes K’Jhené would get to meet “the best man in the whole wide world.”

And so said, so done. TKR’s management contacted Tinto and made it happen.

Told she was going to the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain to take pictures, she dressed up and was very excited, only to have that excitement quadrupled when she saw Pooran.

“I was a little nervous but I was so happy,” she said.

He gifted her a signed bat and a TKR jersey. She urged him to keep his fingers crossed for the upcoming matches. Having her fingers crossed during matches is one of her signature moves to ensure “the boys don’t out.”

She also got to meet Sport Minister Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis as her family was invited to the VIP Hospitality Lounge for another match – TKR vs Barbados Royals. TKR got 145/9, winning by 30 runs.

On October 1, TKR lost by nine wickets to Barbados Royals in the eliminator match.

K’Jhené said, “I felt sad but I’m still proud of the boys. Jesus loves them even when they lose, and me too.”

Her mother told her that next year, TKR will have another chance to win, to which she replied, “And Barbados will have another chance to lose.”

She said she would love to go to more live cricket games and her favourite part is “seeing (her) boys winning.”

Apart from cricket, she enjoys reading, playing with her dog Louie and going on adventures.