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ALL-ROUNDER Jim Allenby has admitted he considered his Glamorgan future last winter after being stripped of the T20 captaincy.
But, following careful consideration about whether to leave the Welsh county a year early from his current contract, Allenby insists he has overcome his initial disappointment and remains 100 per cent committed to Glamorgan’s cause.
Glamorgan boss Matthew Mott decided to give this summer’s limited overs leadership role to overseas Australian batsman Marcus North after Mark Wallace and Allenby shared the 40-over and T20 responsibilities in 2012.
Wallace has remained skipper for the county championship this summer, but, Allenby, who only captained five matches in a rain-affected 2012 campaign, was upset to have lost his leadership responsibilities.
“Initially I was extremely disappointed,” admitted Allenby. “It has been an ambition of mine for a long time to captain sides because I enjoy the role and feel I am good at it.
“I felt after only captaining for five games I was not given a proper run at it.
“I would be lying if I said I had not considered my future and whether my ambitions might be met elsewhere.
“But that is not the way to go about things and I am absolutely committed to Glamorgan.
“These things happen in sport where decisions are made which you don’t have to agree with.
“But I have accepted the decision and completely moved on and I am 100 per cent behind Mark and Marcus.
“Mark has a big year this summer and it is up to us to help him with his commitments as the new Professional Cricket Association (PCA) chairman, his benefit year and captaincy commitments.
“North is coming back to Wales with good experience of leading Western Australia in the past.
“After having a summer off and relinquished his captaincy role with Western Australia last season, Marcus will be fresh.
“Whether I am a future Glamorgan captain we will have to wait and see who is making the decisions.
“But I still have those ambitions and feel the experiences I have had over the last couple of years will stand me in good stead.”
Allenby will concentrate on proving his fitness after missing the pre-season tour of South Africa last month.
The 30-year-old spent the winter in his native Western Australia but stayed in Cardiff to train while his team-mates travelled to Potchefstroom on a 10-day trip.
“I missed the tour because I had a medical condition which a couple of years ago I had surgery for,” explained Allenby,
“It has got to a stage where I needed to see doctors a bit more regularly.
“The idea was I got back from Perth where I spent the off season that I needed to catch up with specialists over here.
“I did not want to do it in season so we took a view I am better off getting it all out the way.
“I hopefully had my last session last week and should be ready to go.
“Missing the tour should not affect things and I am viewing it as a positive.
“If anything I am at an advantage because I have trained in these cold conditions for the last few weeks.
“The tour sounded like a great success but I have also had great support in Cardiff.”
Allenby proved his fitness by playing in a pre-season friendly at the Swalec Stadium last week.
He is aiming to continue the form which saw him named as the Glamorgan player of the year in 2012 and is also hoping this squad will finally deliver after a few lean seasons.
Allenby insisted the class of 2013 have no excuses especially following the signings of veteran Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin and Australian seamer Michael Hogan.
“Our performances have not been good enough for the last few years.” said Allenby.
“This is not exactly what I signed up in 2009 for, but in professional sport these things happen.
“The first full year in 2010 was as I expected when we almost won promotion, but it is a different team now and a different club.
“My job is to try and help Glamorgan win games of cricket and try and win championships and trophies.
“We were probably closer to that when I first signed.
“But with this year’s investment in the squad and the facilities we have there are no excuses not to do well.
“We have got a good squad which is probably the best I have played with on paper.
“If we don’t perform there is a flaw which needs to be fixed.
“It is either we are not good enough as players or we are not doing the right things.
“We have not got a young or particularly Welsh squad.
“We have got some experienced overseas internationals who we should do well.
“Murray will add a lot of experience and he has scored a lot of big innings which we have missed recently.
“He has won three county championships and I am going to try and extract as much information as I can off him.
“I am sure he has some runs left in him and he has a point to prove.
“A good player with a great record and a point to prove is a dangerous proposition for the opposition.
“Hogan is just a fine bowler and like a third overseas player for us.
“I would not be surprised if it took him a little while to adapt to the conditions because wickets are a lot different to Perth.
“But as long as he and the team are patient, he is a 60 or 70 wickets a season bowler who are a few and far between now.
Success this season could be what is needed to keep Allenby at the Swalec Stadium after his contract runs out at the end of this summer.
“I would be lying if I said I had not thought about the future,” added Allenby.
“I have a mortgage and only one career which I am in the middle of.
“I have spoken with the club this year and last year and told them my ambitions are to win trophies and play at the highest level I can.
“This has not changed and I would love for at least one of those things to happen here and all problems would be solved.
“I will be playing my cricket where I think I can achieve those goals.
“I have made no secret of that and will tell anyone who asks me.
“I would love that to be here with Glamorgan and with the signings we made we should be competing for trophies this summer.
“I want to fulfil my goals here, but if it is not we will look at things again.
“We will see how the next few months go.”
Glamorgan begin their first-class season by hosting the Cardiff MCCU students on Friday in a three-day match before their county championship opener against Northamptonshire at the Swalec Stadium in a week.
