Bermuda’s batsmen will be facing one of the top fast bowlers in the West Indies from a decade ago when Jermaine Lawson, a former Test player, makes his debut for the United States at the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Malaysia.

Lawson, who moved to New York in 2010, has been included in a 14-man US squad for this month’s tournament, having served the ICC’s four-year residency qualification.

He becomes the third former West Indies player in the last two years to be selected for the US in an ICC tournament, joining Adam Sanford and Neil McGarrell, the former US captain, who have both been dropped by the team after their fifteenth-place finish at the World Twenty20 qualifiers last November.

Clayton Lambert, a former West Indies opening batsman, has also represented the US and played when Bermuda beat them in Ireland in 2005 to qualify for the World Cup.

Lawson will be leading the US attack when Bermuda face them in the opening match in Malaysia on October 23. The 32-year-old plays club cricket in New Jersey and New York for Sheffield, a largely West Indian side, where he has been tormenting opposing batsmen with his pace.

Lawson’s presence in the US has not gone unnoticed, with The New York Times recently featuring him in an article under the headline “Once a star, a cricketer now in Exile” in which they talked about how, in the early 2000s, Lawson was hailed as one of the most exciting bowling prospects in the West Indies.

Lawson played his last Test match for the West Indies in 2005 in Australia, his international career coming to a halt because of a suspect bowling action which has seen him twice called for ‘chucking’, the latest during a league game in Jamaica in 2006. He also suffered from a slew of injuries that halted his progress.

Away from the glare of Test cricket, however, Lawson seems to be adapting to his new surroundings in New York and New Jersey.

“Cricket in New York is nothing like it is in Jamaica,” Lawson told The New York Times. “We make do with what we have.”

Barrington Bartley, who played for the US in the Division Three tournament in Bermuda a year ago, grew up with Lawson in Jamaica and also lives in New York.

“He was going to go far, they all knew it,” Bartley said.

Lawson rose through the ranks of Jamaica’s junior teams and at age 20 was selected for the West Indies.

“Jermaine is a Test cricketer,” Bartley said. “A real Test cricketer right here in New York.”

At his peak Lawson was bowling at 95 miles per hour and his Test career, though relatively brief, was filled with high points, such as the hat-trick he took against Australia. His best bowling performance at that level was the seven wickets he claimed against Australia in 2003.

Mike Selvey, a cricket correspondent in Britain and a former England Test player, remembers Lawson as a rising star more than a decade ago.

“He was very successful for a time, and then he had that incident with suspect action and that finished him,” Selvey said.

“I don’t know what happened to him since.”

Others have wondered, too, like a female fan in Barbados who found him on Facebook and was curious about his whereabouts. “Why don’t you play international cricket anymore?” she wrote. “I miss you.”

Lawson wrote back. “I’m living in New York. I’m sorry you’re not able to see me play.

“People keep asking me ‘will you come back?’ I could go back, but my life is here now.”

Bermuda and the other Division Three teams will find out how much Lawson has changed as a fast bowler since his departure from the international scene.

Also returning to the US team are Usman Shuja, Adiltya Thyagarajan, Sushil Nadkarni and Steve Massiah, a former US captain. Shuja is the US’s second-highest wicket-taker in 50-over cricket while Thyagarajan is the team’s fourth-highest run-scorer in the same format.

Both players were controversially axed from the US squad before last year’s Division Three tournament in Bermuda. The pair’s experience was badly missed as they suffered defeat at the hands of Arnold Manders’s side in their final group match, a team they had not lost to in an ICC tournament since 2005 in Ireland. That defeat in Bermuda left the US in third place in the standings and kept them out of the World Cup qualifiers in New Zealand, as Bermuda avoided relegation to Division Four.

Now the US will be one of the favourites to finish in the top two in Malaysia and finally gain promotion to Division Two, a goal that has eluded them since 2007.

The Bermuda Cricket Board was forced this week to replace head coach Manders with Allan Douglas after he was struck down with pneumonia.