Homegrown, that’s how those involved with American cricket and the fans out there in the US like to describe Steven Taylor. A tall frame, strongly built, and a clean ball-striker, Taylor is the complete package.

Born and raised in the southern state of Florida to Jamaican immigrant parents, it wasn’t a surprise when the young boy took an equal amount of interest in athletics, basketball and cricket while growing up. And even more unsurprisingly, cricket was what he chose as a profession. Into the MI New York side now in the MLC, he’s made his mark in the history books, becoming the first US-born player to be picked up in the Draft on Sunday (March 19).

Early breakthrough: With his father as a coach, and former USA batter Mark Johnson a mentor, this left-handed wicketkeeper-batter, broke a number of junior cricket records growing up, and a was earmarked as one for the future. At 15, he travelled with the USA senior men’s team. At 16, he was playing T20 cricket.

His first major stint at brushing shoulders the big cricketing countries came at the 2010 under-19 World Cup, and soon, followed it up with a stellar performance in the ICC Americas under-19 Championship, emerging as one of the top run-scorers and carrying the USA to victory with an unbeaten run in the tournament.

Caribbean stint: One of the rare few American players to bag CPL contracts, Taylor was signed up by the Barbados Tridents for two seasons in 2015-16, followed by stints with Guyana Amazon Warriors and Jamaica Tallawahs in 2017 and 2018 respectively. This is where his wicket-keeping gave way to some useful off-breaks. A First Class stint came about as well in the 2017-18 season, with him turning up for Jamaica.

Becoming one of the best USA batters: Drafted in straight from the under-19 World Cup, Taylor found himself in the ICC World Cricket League Division Four side, where his consistent run saw USA romp into Division Three. In 2013, he became the first USA batter to score a T20 century, smashing a 62-ball 101 against Bermuda.

A short, but super interesting stint as the national captain followed, and Taylor started off by leading the USA to the WCL Division Four title, but quit soon after when he side couldn’t advance to the next round in Division Three. Nevertheless, he remains one of the mainstays of the American batting unit, someone the locals are super proud of, and someone they call their own!