He has big shoes to fill, but James Harris seems an apt choice as PCA chairman

NICK FRIEND: Harris was a natural replacement for Daryl Mitchell, stepping up from his vice-chair position. Here, he discusses the short-term challenges, maintaining his on-field form and a desire to leave the game in a better place than he found it

During a tenure as chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association that included negotiations around the County Partnership Agreement, The Hundred and the significant matter of seeing the domestic game through the coronavirus pandemic, it perhaps went under the radar that Daryl Mitchell continued to churn out the runs.

Over the last four seasons – and two completed terms – as the player charged with leading his union through one of its most complicated periods, the former Worcestershire captain managed 14 first-class hundreds.

And that individual success was important because, as he reminded James Harris when the pair spoke to hand over the reins to the Middlesex seamer, the priority must remain the job at hand.

“The biggest piece of advice Daryl gave was that, first and foremost, I’m a cricketer,” Harris tells The Cricketer, speaking ahead of his first summer in the role, having been elected in January ahead of two other candidates to become the fifteenth man to hold the post – an “incredibly humbling” fillip.

“In a really interesting way, one of my biggest issues through my playing career has been not being able to leave everything at the ground every night. I’ve always taken things home and I’ve always thought about cricket. Most of the time, I’ll be sat on a sofa, having not played for two days and all of a sudden I’ll be thinking about the last game or the next game or things like that.

“But I think the great thing about this role is that it’s going to give me less time – it will allow me to go: ‘Right, I’m on the way to the ground, so it’s time to switch on,’ and then as soon as I leave I’ll have a call at 3pm, a call at 4pm, making dinner, something to do at 7pm.

“I’m really positive that being a lot busier will benefit my cricket. It is at the moment – it will be interesting to see whether that carries on through the summer, but I’m very hopeful that it will.”

^{James Harris has replaced Daryl Mitchell as PCA chairman}

He is grateful to Mitchell, therefore, for not disappearing without trace: the 37-year-old has taken on a new role, becoming the director of cricket operations in a newly formed wing of the organisation.

For many reasons, however, Harris is a natural replacement, not least because he and England Women captain Heather Knight had previously acted as vice-chairs to Mitchell from June 2020 – a position that “gave me an insight into more of what he does”. Knight is continuing in that role alongside recent appointee Anuj Dal, the Derbyshire allrounder.

Prior to taking up that post, Harris had already been on the players’ committee for three years and was the resident PCA representative for his county, while both he and Rob Lynch, the PCA’s chief executive, have a positive previous relationship from their time spent together at Middlesex.

His own pathway through the professional game is of equal significance. Few have experienced careers as well rounded as his, replete both with highlights and complications. At 14, he became the youngest man to represent Glamorgan’s second team and, at 15, earned his first contract with the club, captaining England Under-16s in the same year and making his County Championship debut still a fortnight short of his 17th birthday. A few weeks later, he became the first player of his age to take a seven-wicket haul in the competition.

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“Certainly, from a male cricketing standpoint, bar spending a lot of time in the international setup, most of the experiences that I could have as a professional cricketer, I’ve probably had in some way, shape or form,” he says.

“A lot of ups early on, then went to Middlesex, had some injuries, had some down-times in between some very good seasons. That certainly grounded me as an individual, I suppose. There have been some really tough elements over the last few years, really searching for form, trying to get my game in a place where I was happy with it.”

He joined Middlesex in 2012, choosing a move to Lord’s when courted by several rivals, before struggling for form thereafter as he strove for the extra pace that might push him from England Lions recognition to the next stage. He found that speed, but only at the expense of the skill and control that previously saw him considered a shoo-in for an early introduction to the international arena.

Inclusion in England’s T20I squad for a series in India was followed a matter of months later by selection in a provisional 30-man squad for the 2013 Champions Trophy. Yet to date, those instances are as close as he has come, but that familiarity alone – of suffering injuries and struggling for rhythm after attempting to take himself to the next level – will resonate with plenty of his colleagues, not all of whom have rediscovered their mojo from those tribulations as effectively as Harris, who took 69 wickets in the 2015 County Championship – including 9 for 34 against Durham – and 61 in 2018. He believes that winding road – from mid-teen to PCA chairman, with all the trimmings in between – will allow him to empathise with his peers in most scenarios.

^{In his teenage days at Glamorgan, he was considered a real prodigy}

Talking earlier this spring to some of his club’s youngsters has had him reminiscing about the early days of that journey. For one, he is thankful to his parents, who ensured he completed his A Levels; the post-retirement challenge of transitioning away from playing elite sport has been much discussed in recent times, with those leaving their respective games without academic qualifications often finding it difficult to know quite where to turn for their next step.

Former seamer Mark Broadhurst joined Yorkshire on a full-time basis straight after his GCSEs in 1991 when the PCA was a markedly different, less developed organisation; he told The Cricketer last month how he was unable to cope with the loss of identity he felt when he was no longer a cricketer, and how lacking an alternative skillset meant that he took up work in a warehouse a month after losing his contract with Nottinghamshire in 1996.

Thankfully, aftercare has improved in the last three decades. Harris is on the verge of completing a degree in business and sports management through the University of Hertfordshire, one of several members of his Middlesex squad who have reached out to higher education to prepare themselves for whatever follows cricket.

“It’s a pretty generic business degree but it’s nice to be able to apply it to lots of sport,” he explains “which is making a lot of the topics in the modules a lot easier to do from our point of view. It makes it a lot more interesting for us.”

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And, given his obvious interest in the administrative side of the game, that is especially the case for Harris, who also boasts a love of road-cycling. As part of that fascination, he contacted Matt Prior for a chat when the ex-England wicketkeeper set up his own racing team: “I went down and interviewed him about business and cycling and how they intertwine and how he dealt with that transition.”

Continuing on that theme represents a major focus of Harris’ early work. Part of a five-year deal agreed between the ECB and PCA in 2019, led by Mitchell and former chief executive David Leatherdale, included a new retirement pot for players leaving the game. Those who retired last year are due to receive their first payments in April and May.

“Taking care of the transition out of sport in the last few years has been documented as being a really big thing that I think has been brought to life a lot more,” says Harris. “We have seen people struggle; the futures fund is one element that will help to take care of people and help them to transition out of the game and into whatever they decide to do next.

“First and foremost, I want to see the successful delivery of that, and then trying to support the members and improve everyone’s lives, careers and chances going forward.”

^{One of Harris' biggest personal challenges will come in replicating Daryl Mitchell's  ability to continue performing on the field}

Related to that immediate task is a longer-term ambition to work together more with the Professional Cricketers’ Trust, the brilliant support arm for members in their time of need. Like many charities through the pandemic, it has been an immensely difficult period.

“They’ve had a huge shortfall in funding over the last year and they’ve spent more than ever on supporting members in varying things that they’ve had to deal with,” Harris stresses, adding that he will be getting on his bike in October to raise money for the charity – not for the first time, having taken part in lengthy rides previously.

“I’d love for there to be more of a collaboration between the players and the Trust while guys are playing,” he says. “While guys are playing, they are going to be at the height of their fame and influence, so it would be great if guys are doing more to give back to the game while they are playing.

“Likewise, I’ve been chatting to some of the people at Chance to Shine to try to put something in place where we can try to put together a programme where guys can give back to children and go along to join some of those sessions and get involved with Chance for Shine.

“I know the ECB are so involved with them, but from a current playing point of view they don’t have much in the way of current player support. There’s something there along the charitable element that I’d love to leave in a better place. I’m so grateful for everything cricket has given me, and I know there are many other guys in my shoes who are able to give back.

“We saw last year how together the advocacy of cricket and players coming together to take pay cuts to help clubs to try and navigate the situation we were in and how important that was. That collective voice is very strong; we need to keep that strong to benefit everyone and to see the game in a better place going forward.”

Harris returns to that notion of giving back at several junctures; a successful tenure in his eyes will be determined by the game he leaves behind. He talks passionately about the memory of his first bat as a 10-year-old boy that still sits in his family home in Wales, signed on its back by Robert Croft.

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“He was at the local cricket club and I used to go and watch Glamorgan as a young boy,” he recalls. “I know how important those experiences are, so the one thing I want to make sure is that when guys do become professionals, they don’t forget about that. That’s a hugely powerful thing.

“While Chance to Shine do an absolutely wonderful job, a Chance to Shine session that is attended by a pro will have more of an impact. Young children there will be able to look up to the professional and ask questions. That could be the difference between a child taking up cricket and wanting to pursue it or potentially not. All of those things have a cumulative effect. If we can do more of that, I can only see it as a really positive thing – and that goes throughout society.”

A survey conducted by the PCA last summer was sent to 600 members and garnered responses from 173, with 23 replies revealing experiences of racism in cricket. Twelve of those identified as black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), while 10 are current professionals.

As a consequence, an education programme has been put in place for all professional players in the UK, as well as everyone involved at the PCA and ECB.

Speaking to The Cricketer, Dal – one of Harris’ deputies and also a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion working group established by the PCA in 2020 – discussed his hope that the course, being led by consultancy firm EW Group, might change cricket for the better.

^{Harris (standing, second from right) with his England Under-19 teammates}

Alongside Dal in assisting Harris is Knight, one of the world’s finest spokespeople for the women’s game, as well as one of its leading players. Her expertise and figurehead status, then, will take on additional significance this year, with the PCA welcoming 41 new female members, comprising the recipients of the first tranche of full-time domestic professional deals, adding to the 17 women already centrally contracted by England. Sophie Luff, Alex Hartley, Naomi Dattani and Tara Norris have all joined the players’ committee, which also features male representatives from each county.

“It’s a brilliant thing for cricket in this country,” adds Harris. “It’s brilliant that I’ve been able to chat to Heather. We’re looking massively at how we can support them as best as we can. We’re looking at how we may need to support them differently to the guys – they may need different things to some of the men.”

That sense of collaboration is at one with the approach that he aims to take forward into the role. “It’s going to be a learning experience for me,” he says. “I’ve always been one through my character and through life so far, where I’d always want to try to take everything on my plate myself. But I’m fully understanding that can’t happen; I will have to delegate and ask for help on all these things.

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“It’s going to be a massive learning experience for me, but one I’m looking forward to and one that will make me a more rounded person coming out the back end of this.

“I’ve always been something of a perfectionist as a character, certainly growing up, so I’ve had to learn and to understand how to let that go somewhat, with my performances not being where I’ve wanted them to be consistently year on year and learning how to deal with that. My life in cricket to this point has shaped me massively and given me some wonderful life lessons along the way, which hopefully I can really make use of in the time that I’m this role and, past that, into my broader life in general. I’ll forever be indebted to everything that has happened to this point really.

“It has been an amazing experience to date, and one of the reasons I wanted to do this job was that it’s a way of giving back and trying to leave the game in a better place – a game that has given me so much and has done so much for me. That’s ultimately my goal, certainly for the two years that I’m chair – it might be four if I decide to run again and get re-elected in a couple of years’ time, but I’d just love to see the game in a stronger place when I finish.”

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