Fabian Allen, the quiet cricketing livewire

March 12, 2021
FILE
Fabian Allen poses for a picture after a high school match for Vere Technical High School in 2013.
FILE Fabian Allen poses for a picture after a high school match for Vere Technical High School in 2013.

He has been described by West Indies head coach Phil Simmons as the best fielder in the region, if not the world, and many will attest to those sentiments that Fabian Allen is the quintessential cricketer.

Hailing from the district of Nief Mountain in the parish of St Elizabeth, Allen found a passion for cricket from the tender age of nine, as his house was just a stone's throw away from the local cricket field.

From his early days at All century cricket club, Allen made it clear that he wanted to be a professional cricketer but never had a favourite player, instead, it was his uncle Vincent Miller who was his mentor and role model and Allen credits him for all his success and getting him to where he is today.

"He was the first person to really believe in me and pushed me to take cricket seriously. He was always working with me with anything we had, which most of the times was just a ball, which is how I became such a good fielder," he recounted.

SCHOOL-RECORD

Allen in his teenage years was the captain of Vere Technical High School where he went on to score a school-record 338 runs, which he boasts about even to this day.

Those performances saw him getting into the Jamaican youth set-up and eventually the West Indies Under-19 team in 2014.

A horrible car accident in 2016 would change his life. Fortunately, he would come out of that accident with only a broken arm, and since then, Allen swore this was a sign to begin to take his cricket career seriously.

A change in attitude and work ethic would eventually bear fruit, as Allen made his first appearance for Jamaica's senior team during the 2016-17 Regional Four Day Competition.

A couple of eye-catching performances for Jamaica, saw Allen getting into the Jamaica Tallawahs roster in 2017, and it was then his life would change dramatically.

Allen was on as a substitute fielder in a CPL encounter in Florida, which was televised live, and it was his one-handed catch that made him a household name, propelling him to the world stage. The remarkable catch was voted number one on ESPN's Top plays.

Since then, the left-arm spinner and hard-hitting lower-order batter has risen from a fringe player in Jamaica's set-up to a virtually permanent fixture in the West Indies white-ball teams as well as T20 franchises around the globe.

He has since been involved with the West Indies team at the ICC World Cup in England in 2019, then was part of the roster for the 2020 Indian Premier League with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and was recently drafted for the 2021 season with the Punjab Kings.

With his parents, his uncle and his two children being his main inspiration, Allen says he wants to continue to inspire and impact the lives of those he comes in contact with.

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