Poor relations maybe, but at least cricket is a closed shop
IMAGES of a portly former Italian restaurant worker were front and back page last week after it emerged that Mino Raiola was ultimately due to pocket an eye-watering £41m from the transfer of Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United.
Cue fresh uproar and head shaking over the role of agents in modern sport. Raiola is believed to have earnt more money in his career so far than Lionel Messi – a claim that brings a smile to the face of Phil Weston, the former Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Derbyshire opener.
“Cricket remains something of a poor relation,” he says. “We’ve got a lot of baseball and NFL clients in the States so it’s safe to say that cricket doesn’t compete on an equal basis with those sports either.”
Weston began working in a bank when he retired from cricket at the end of the 2007 season. Now he’s four years into a new career as the general manager for cricket at TLA Worldwide, a company that also has a presence in Australia and the USA and boasts the likes of Olympic gold medallists, Adam Peaty, Becky Adlington and Sir Chris Hoy, alongside Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale and Luke Wright.
Weston is one of a number of former players who have gone on to represent players at the end of their career, joining the likes of Luke Sutton, who runs the Cheshire-based Activate Group, and Neil Fairbrother, the director of cricket at International Sports Management (ISM).
From securing winter contracts overseas to county moves, to helping players up sticks and move house, the role of agent is now an integral part of the sport – and far removed from the days when Tim Hudson promised to make Ian Botham a Hollywood star.
Botham brought Hudson in to manage him in the mid-80s. He took the place of Reg Hayter, who knew a thing or two about the role of the agent, having played a key role in creating the role in modern sport in the first place. Hayter was approached by Denis Compton during England’s tour to South Africa in 1948/49 to sort out a suitcase of correspondence that was full to bursting.
It included, among other commercial opportunities, the offer of £2,000 to write a weekly column for the
News of the World – an offer that was withdrawn months later as a result of Compton’s failure to reply.
On their return to England, Hayter put Compton in touch with Bagenal Harvey, who would subsequently secure Compton the Brylcream contract with which he became synonymous.
Endorsements and the role of the agent have changed enormously since.
“Different agents do different things,” says Weston. “The simple role of an agent is to conclude contractual negotiations all around the world for their clients, whether they be sporting or commercial.
“We, though, talk about managing cricketers rather than being agents, so we’re involved in a lot of aspects of their lives so they can achieve what they want for themselves and their families.We also try and help them transition out of the game at the end of their careers, too.”
Although the kind of sums on offer to the likes of Pogba are still pie in the sky, even for the Virat Kohlis and Ben Stokes of this world, the increased sums available from competitions like the Indian Premier League and Big Bash mean that those agents lucky enough to be involved with the world’s leading players can enjoy a far more substantial cut.
Raiola is unlikely to switch his attention away from Pogba and focus on Twenty20 cricket anytime soon, though, leaving cricket all the richer.