UK Edition
Now agents are on the rise in cricket, too - is there a catch?
Last Sunday Harry Gurney, the England left-arm pace bowler, won the Big Bash League. Gurney had the Melbourne Renegades, and his own performances, to thank for the triumph. But he was also grateful to his agent.
Last year, Gurney, who played 12 limited-overs games for England in 2014, wanted to join the Twenty20 circuit. But he had no idea of how to get picked up. He needed an agent.
He approached Insignia Sports, which specialises in T20 and represented several of his Nottinghamshire team-mates. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he said. Gurney believes that his agent, Tom Harwood, has “had a huge impact” in him getting lucrative contracts in the Big Bash, Pakistan Super League and the Indian Premier League this winter. “Their network in this world is insane,” he said.
With T20 leagues from Afghanistan to Australia, and Canada to the Caribbean, cricket is big business, and agents are on the march. There are 40 in England alone, double the number five years ago. “T20’s changed the way we work,” Harwood explains.
“I don’t think it is at the same level as football,” says James Welch, an agent since 2007. “But I have noticed a change over the last few years.”
Before his client David Willey joined Yorkshire, Welch was made aware of another agent claiming to represent him. This is increasingly common in T20 leagues. In the Bangladesh Premier League, Harwood has observed “people pushing your players in the vain hope they might get a bite from the team”. In some T20 leagues, there are suggestions that captains or coaches seem to push specific players whom their agent also represents.
Only four countries: England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, regulate agents, according to the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association. The FICA has proposed to the International Cricket Council that there should be a regulated global player agent accreditation system. Tony Irish, the head of FICA, explains players now plan their careers more carefully, and good agents are vital.
They can chart the best path for their client. When considering franchise offers, agents routinely look at dimensions – smaller grounds are better for boundary-hitters and worse for spinners, for instance – as well as who they would play with.
“I’d always advise a player to go to a side who have an IPL coach,” says Welch, who runs Quantum Sports. Willey, one of his clients, signed for a Bangladeshi team coached by IPL coach Tom Moody in 2017, rejecting the chance to join South Africa’s league. Agents liaise with teams about the best role for their players: Welch once emailed Yorkshire with Willey’s batting strike rate in the power play to see if he could bat higher up the order.
Even if a player is not initially selected for a T20 league, agents try to identify a path in. “You’ve got to be on-the-ball with replacements,” Harwood says. That means giving players the best chance of being picked up as replacements at short notice, should there be an injury or international call-up.
Negotiations between player and team traditionally centred on two questions: ‘How much?’ and ‘How many years?’ Now, there are new areas to address. Counties regularly stipulate that a player can only go to the IPL if they fetch a certain minimum price, and negotiate how many foreign tournaments players can appear in. Some sides use metrics to determine salaries: Kent award bonuses if a player achieves a certain number of points on the Most Valuable Player rankings. Players not involved in the T20 circuit often still avoid agents. In 2018, 175 county cricketers – almost half – instead used the free contract negotiation service provided by the Professional Cricketers’ Association.
Agents help with: financial planning, hotels, hire cars. Insignia urges players to take up insurance in case they are injured before a tournament – this can cost players up to 20 per cent of their contracts. There is always something unforeseen. Welch recalls having to ferry Mark Wood from Newcastle to Basingstoke and back for an injection two years ago to see if he go on tour with England.
Sides find that agents’ knowledge of international dates – which they often know months before they are announced – is essential. “Often teams will tell me they’re going for a player and I tell them he’s not available,” Harwood says.
Derbyshire asked Insignia to help source an all-rounder available for 2019; Insignia suggested Logan van Beek, who qualified through his European passport and he was signed.
Agents are looking beyond cricket’s heartlands. But the moves into new frontiers – and the financial rewards – are also creating a more cut-throat environment. “Player poaching is a serious issue,” Talha Aisham, who recruited Nepalese spinner Sandeep Lamichhane to the IPL, says. “As this profession is getting popular, a lot of people are coming to it without any background and training.”
To remain ahead, agents are embracing cricket’s statistical revolution. Welch has recruited Dan Weston, a respected T20 analyst, to identify players – effectively, working as a scout. Somerset’s all-rounder Lewis Gregory, who has a stellar T20 strike rate in recent years, was signed based on Weston’s data. And the rewards? Agents charge counties a 10 per cent finders’ fee for an overseas player. Players pay agents about five per cent for a contract renewal, 10 per cent for a new contract and about 15 per cent for endorsement deals. This can add up to annual earnings running into six figures.