Tallawahs' Timroy Allen comes home after whirlwind year

Tallawahs' Timroy Allen comes home after whirlwind year

Twelve months ago, the prospect of Caribbean Premier League games being played in the USA may have seemed improbable. In line with that, the chance for an American player to play in a professional franchise team on home soil also seemed a distant possibility.

Both have been achieved this weekend in Florida and the journey taken by Timroy Allen is a remarkable one, not least because he had almost all but given up on cricket in 2013 at age 26. But two-and-a-half years later, Allen is back this weekend in Florida with the Jamaica Tallawahs squad with a chance to play in front of his home-state fans.

"It's definitely mind-boggling," Allen told ESPNcricinfo. "Never thought something like this would ever happen. It's definitely been unreal to say the least. When you're in a strong enough team especially guys like Chris Gayle, [Kumar] Sangakkara, [Andre] Russell guys like those, you look at it like an honour and a privilege to be a part of the team with these guys, especially where we are now, winning where everybody's performing. You couldn't ask for any better."

Born in Jamaica, Allen came to Florida as a teenager and developed quickly, making his USA debut aged 21 against Barbados in 2008, taking 1 for 26 in eight overs. Two matches later, he claimed a career-best 5 for 7 against Suriname and garnered a reputation as a match-winner for his abilities with both bat and ball. He won two Man-of-the-Match awards at 2012 WCL Division Four in Malaysia, hitting 72* in 43 balls against the hosts to open the event and produced an all-round effort in a must-win game against Singapore, to help USA gain promotion to Division Three in Bermuda.

But the following year was full of disappointment. When USA failed in Bermuda that May and missed out on a spot in the 2014 50-over World Cup Qualifier in New Zealand, Allen was so distraught that he left his kit bag in the team hotel and got on the plane to go home vowing never to play again. He was coaxed to come back in November for the World T20 Qualifier, but USA's last-place finish in group play, and a fall-out with coach Robin Singh, resulted in him turning his attention to his pest control and extermination business, believing once again that he'd given up the game for good.

Allen's road back began in August when applications opened up for an ICC-organised Combine trial in Indianapolis where he competed against 68 other players from USA, Canada, Argentina and Cayman Islands for the right to progress to a second phase of competition against players from the region who had been part of their respective 2015 World T20 Qualifier squads.

From the start of the Combine, Allen caught the eyes of talent evaluators including Courtney Walsh and Mike Young, who were curious how a player with his skills was in the first batch of players instead of being fast-tracked into the previously shortlisted players earmarked for the final phase a week later. Allen not only made it through as one of 12 players invited back for the second part of the trial, but made it through the final round of cuts to be in a 15-man ICC Americas squad that went to this January's Nagico Super50 in Trinidad & Tobago.

The players were also told that six of them would be given opportunities, one with each franchise, to gain a CPL contract. Going to Trinidad meant taking some time off from his business, but the sacrifice has been worthwhile.

Allen's medium-pace impressed enough during the Nagico Super50, taking Dwayne Smith's wicket twice and also that of West Indies Test representative Shai Hope, to catch the Tallawahs attention, too, who snapped him up in the draft. The Jamaica-born US citizen says he couldn't believe his fortune.

"Ever since I heard that it was Jamaica, excited from day one," Allen says. "Initially when the trial camp came up and they said the top six players, one of them will go to each franchise, yes it was appealing. But I think afterwards, you realise you get a chance and you get to play for Jamaica. You get to represent the island that you're from. You didn't get a chance to represent while you were living there but you come to America, you kind of get a chance to go back and represent, it's a different feeling inside, excited from day one."

It hasn't been all smooth sailing though for Allen. He was good enough to make the Tallawahs opening day line-up against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots but coming in at No. 8 in the final over, he was bowled with a first-ball yorker. His first two overs conceded just 14, but asked to bowl the final over with 29 runs to defend, he conceded twos off the first two balls to clinch victory, but then proceeded to give up three consecutive sixes to Devon Thomas in an eventual 24-run over.

"For the first game that I played in, that was kind of a wake-up call for me," Allen says. "At this level, it's not like league cricket where you can probably bowl a little fast and intimidate certain people but after the first two or three balls, you realise they start reading it and picking it up, and you have to be able to change.

"It's a more aggressive format of the game and this is the best of the guys out there. It's not like you're going to make a little mistake and get away with it. If you make a mistake, you're going to pay the price for it. I kind of learned that the hard way."