‘I do not know when the next pay packet will be coming’

Harry Gurney is one of the freelance T20 specialists facing a big loss of earnings in crisis, writes Tim Wigmore

Last month, Harry Gurney was house-hunting with his wife. Then, as the severity of the coronavirus outbreak became clear, they swiftly backtracked. “I said, ‘We’re going to have to put that on the back burner and live off the deposit we have saved up, because I don’t know when the next pay packet’s coming or when the next game of cricket’s going to be’,” Gurney says. “Which is a first-world problem admittedly. I’m lucky that I’ve got a house.”

Now, Gurney is preparing for the worst in the wake of the Indian Premier League being the latest event to be indefinitely suspended. “The worst-case scenario, which I think is probably a relatively likely scenario, is that we suddenly miss out on hundreds of thousands of pounds which we were expecting.”

As a new-generation freelance cricketer, he would have no other income from the sport to fall back on. He played 12 limited-overs games for England in 2014, but now deploys his left-arm pace bowling in Twenty20 games for Nottinghamshire and in leagues in Australia, India and the Caribbean.

In all facets of life, freelancers will be most affected by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. So it is likely to be in cricket, too, with the growing number of freelance short-format players worldwide – although this is more of a trickle in England – standing to take the greatest hit.

Those on full-time contracts with counties – effectively staff, as Gurney was until announcing his retirement from first-class cricket last March – are much better positioned. Although players from 16 counties have been furloughed, their counties are still topping up most of their wages, with the worst-affected full-time players standing to lose only around 20 per cent of their county salaries.

For Gurney and other freelancers, it is very different. “Those guys are still getting the pay cheques coming in,” he says. “Whereas people like myself, Alex Hales and Tymal Mills haven’t got that.” Such freelancers are still due to receive most of their county salaries, but – unlike for fully contracted county players – this is a much smaller portion of their income, which comes predominantly from competitions other than the

T20 Blast.

If the 2020 edition of the IPL does not go ahead, Gurney (right) will lose all of his £85,000 fee. And, as The Daily Telegraph first reported, if the 2020 Hundred is cancelled, players are likely to receive only five per cent of their original competition fees – £75,000, in Gurney’s case. “The worst-case scenario is you were expecting to earn

£75,000 and it all goes to zero – but it’s all so unknown, isn’t it? I’m preparing for the worst-case scenario, which is that I will have almost no income for the next six to 12 months,” he says.

To try to prepare for a future after the game, Gurney is also part-owner of two Midlands pubs; these have naturally been disrupted by coronavirus, too, and have been converted to takeaway restaurants to try to save jobs. As is common among freelance players, Gurney takes out insurance to guard against missing out on tournaments. This is generally around six per cent of his tournament salary, but the policy is “to cover you for injuries rather than global pandemics,” he laughs ruefully. In some ways, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic is only an extreme example of the perennial uncertainty of the freelance cricketer. An ill-timed run of bad form, or injury, stands not only to make a player unavailable or less appealing to one franchise, but to start a cascade.

“You do feel slightly less secure when freelancing than playing county cricket, although the pros still outweigh the cons,” Gurney says. “Every competition is a shop window for the next one.”

Yet, while freelance players may be most affected in the months ahead, they may also be best-placed when there is a return to normal. The schedule when cricket restarts could be even more congested – creating more opportunities for freelance players such as Gurney and, if tournaments overlap, more chances for less-heralded T20 cricketers, too.

But, whatever the heightened uncertainties he faces, Gurney is in no doubt about the wisdom of his decision to become a T20 freelance player. “I’ve absolutely loved the last 18 months two years doing what I’ve been doing, and I wouldn’t change it for the world – so no regrets.”