THE UNCERTAINTIES OF PRO-CRICKET

When winter comes

by   •  Published on
Representative Image: Despite the supposed glamour, professional sport is a precarious way to make a living.
Representative Image: Despite the supposed glamour, professional sport is a precarious way to make a living. © Getty

Ahead of the 2017 county season, Ben Kitt was living his dream as a professional cricketer. As a fast bowler, wickets were his bargaining chips, and having taken more than 100 of them for Nottinghamshire's second team the previous summer, the fast bowler had been rewarded with a two-year contract. There are few better places to call home than Trent Bridge. It was supposed to be the start of something.

But now, following two stress fractures and a side strain, he was released at the end of this season. Without the security of a contract, this winter Kitt will be selling insurance to pay his mortgage. The dream, for now, is on hold.

Despite the supposed glamour, professional sport is a precarious way to make a living. Careers and contracts can be ended by injury, the opinions of coaches or plain old bad luck. For those who have spent most of their lives playing sport, sometimes to the exclusion of education or vocational training, the end can see them totally unprepared for what comes next. That angst is particularly acute when a player's career is hanging by a thread earlier than he or she expected.

At this time of year, press releases announcing the names of players who are being released from their counties are numerous. Some, like Paul Collingwood or Jonathan Trott, have had full careers and have called it quits themselves. For them, peace can be found in their decisions. For the majority however, younger and with goals unfulfilled and finances insecure, the decision has been made for them. With it comes a realisation: they may never play professional cricket again.

Kitt knew the decision was coming. Nottinghamshire had told him earlier in the season that he would not be offered a contract extension as things stood. Given a stress fracture ruled him out of the second half of the summer, things were never going to change. He has no qualms with how the county handled it and has no issue with their decision. "I can't argue with it because I haven't had a chance to prove I'm good enough," he says.

With the knowledge that a new deal was unlikely, Kitt considered giving it all up. "I fell out of love with the game because I haven't been playing," he says. "Quite a few times I thought about quitting. A lot of times when I thought I can't be bothered.

"But you've got to stay positive," he says. "The uncertainty isn't very nice and I could end up having to find a job for a few years rather than just the next six months. But I know I'm good enough. When I've played with good players, I've got them out."

Kitt hasn't yet had much interest from counties but nor has he solicited any. For the next few months, he simply wants to regain fitness and then he will start going to trials in the hope that a county takes a punt on him. For now, the uncertainty will continue.

Ben Cotton, another fast-bowler, went through a similar experience earlier this year. During the 2017 season, he had done well enough for Derbyshire in T20 cricket as they made the quarter-finals of the Blast, and the club convinced him to put aside a trip to play club cricket in Australia to work with them throughout the winter. Cotton turned up in November for pre-season training and spent the next six weeks working hard in the gym and the nets. Then, a bombshell.

Just before Christmas, a meeting was arranged with the club and he was told he was no longer required despite having a year left on his contract. "I got told I wasn't going to play any second-team cricket either if I did decide to stay," he says. That meeting more or less forced Cotton's hand and his release was formally confirmed in the February.

"It wasn't great timing as my Nan had died just before and so it was a tough Christmas," he says. "It was like 'How do I give even more bad news to my family?' I kept it from them while we got that all out of the way and then finally told them. I've not got many other qualifications. I went to University for two years and didn't finish because I wanted to give my cricket a good go. You don't really know what the future holds after that. It slams you down to the ground."

Despite Cotton's experience, these decisions should not come out of the blue. It is written into players' contracts that in their final year, they must have a mid-year appraisal where the county gives the player a grading from A to E. "The ideal situation is that they will have a good idea by late June, early July as to how they are being perceived," Charlie Mulraine, a Personal Development Manager with the Professional Cricketers' Association, says.

"When it reaches the end of the season, it then shouldn't be much of a shock. Sadly, it doesn't happen all the time and there are still situations where that process could be handled a lot better by counties and by coaches. It's not a very comfortable conversation for anybody to have but players just want honesty and to know where they stand. The clearer that conversation can be, the better they can deal with that and move on."

One of the first things a released player needs to think about is money. How much do they have and how much do they need? The average age of released players is 26 years old but each person is different. Kitt's mortgage means he needs a steady income. For Ravi Patel, a left-arm spinner released by Middlesex, he at least has the luxury of a contract until December unlike many whose deals ran out in October.

"I'll still be getting my wage until the New Year but I can't just sit and wait for the phone to ring and not think about anything else," he says. "Coaching is something I am passionate about so I have sorted certain sessions to help financially."

Ben Kitt had seen the decision coming. Nottinghamshire eventually had to let him go.
Ben Kitt had seen the decision coming. Nottinghamshire eventually had to let him go. ©Getty

Kitt, Cotton and Patel have all had to consider whether their futures lie out of the game. Cotton was recently awarded a one-year contract with Northamptonshire but after a summer of playing second-team cricket without a contract forthcoming, he was getting to a point when a decision needed to be made. "You do get those days when you wonder where your next pound is coming from and you probably have to give yourself a timeline of how long you're going to give it," he says.

"It would be naive for it to not enter your mind," Patel says. "The fact that it's been a few weeks and there has been no contract, you have to think about that. Part of my mind has been planning the what if... I know my number one option is playing county cricket but if that option isn't available then I have to think about other things."

What comes next is complicated by the fact that players who want to continue in the game need to be available to trial or to play second team matches.

Patel has decided to remain in the UK this winter rather than travel abroad to play club cricket so he is available should a county want to see him. Cotton faced the same dilemma earlier this year. "It's a catch 22," he says. "You want to carry on with your cricket and you need to be free at the drop of a hat to play second team so you can't go out and look for a job, get the job and then ask for this day off and that day off. You've got to do one or the other."

With the uncertainty, worry and the blow to pride, it's no surprise that players without contracts can be susceptible to mental health issues or problems with alcohol or drugs. "There's a danger that people can be defined by what they do," Mulraine says. "To be a professional cricketer is, for many people, the pinnacle of their careers so to suddenly see themselves as something else, that can be a difficult process.

"We don't always find it's as soon as they've been released that these problems present themselves. Sometimes, it can be months or even a years later. The first two years of leaving are often the hardest and often define how the next five years are going to be. Those players who haven't been able to put money aside, they have to make immediate decisions and can go down paths they don't want to go down. That can cause immense pressure."

The PCA provides support to players in a variety of ways and it is not limited to just those with contracts. As Mulraine says, "They are members for life," and often players get more assistance from the PCA after they are released than before. The PDMs can assist with professional support should it be needed to address issues after release but a key focus of their work is in encouraging players, no matter how young, to look at preparing for life after cricket before they get to that stage. "We really encourage that so it's not like falling off a cliff," Mulraine says.

In November, the PCA will hold a Transition Conference for released cricketers, consisting of two days of workshops and seminars about planning finances, career development, dealing with transition and the emotional side of things. They are also adding a section to their website containing profiles of out of contract players.

"You don't realise what you have until it gets taken away from you," Cotton, who is pursuing his interest in becoming a groundsman, says. "You're quite comfortable as a cricketer but then as soon as that gets taken away from you, you don't know what to do. One of the massive lessons I've learnt is that when the PCA give you chances to go on courses, do as much as you can. You always put it off because you want to concentrate on your cricket but I will pay more attention to stuff for when it doesn't work out."

At least for now, Cotton has the comfort of a one-year deal at Wantage Road. For numerous others currently out of contract, that uncertainty remains.

"I've never been in this situation," Patel says. "I was never left until my last year, they always extended it. It's a new feeling but it's reality so I have to deal with it."

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