SECRET CRICKETER - Nervous times and futures on the line as cricket comes to a halt

The summer may be over but our Secret Cricketer says the dirty work starts now for clubs and players as both hope to resolve their individual agendas…

In England, it’s that horrible time again. The leaves are going from green to red to yellow, days are getting shorter, nights longer, the dew on the grass slower to burn off, and the days on the games console at their peak.

The cricket season is over.

For the international regulars, the job, the contracts (especially if they’re central ones) look after themselves. Take a quick break and get back on the treadmill - and FIFA 16.

The national team is already in United Arab Emirates and gearing up for the change of pace, bounce and turn of these wickets. The Lions are shadowing and ready to step in if need be but there’s also a real chance to sow seeds with all the top coaching and management staff looking on.

South Africa is just around the corner and things can change very quickly in selection strategy if someone isn’t performing - especially with a far different and arguably more difficult tour to come.

Domestically, the awards nights are done and dusted, and the end of season debriefs and player reviews are underway. Where did things go right and, horribly, where did it all go wrong?

Feelings of relief (thank God that’s over), hope (the body stops hurting soon), excitement (a month off to do whatever) and fear (oh, God what to do now).

Coaches are pleading their clubs for more money to recruit for next season. Chairmen are wondering why results don’t match the season’s spend. Players are talking to their agents and the agents are talking to their clubs and others. The merry-go-round of contract negotiations begins. The successful players hoping for some decent signings for the following season and the deadwood in the squad cut, and the underperformers are worried about their careers.

The dressing room is just like an office: people you like, people you hate and people you just don’t feel anything about. But either way you hope the coach, the CEO, the Chairman recognise the problems in the dressing room and on the field and rectify it.

There are those players that have a handy knack of finishing the season with runs after underperforming for the majority of. It’s as if all of a sudden they realise that there may not be a contract for the season after. I played with a guy for many seasons and in the last two rounds he always found runs. Always. He’d take his season average and aggregate from mediocre to reasonable. But did it matter to the team? Nope it was already too late to have an effect on the team’s standings. Did those runs add up to a contract extension? Yes. It always did.

Another I played with was told he was going to be released at the end of the season. As if to say, “well, f**k you” he goes out and scores a hundred in his last innings for the club. We’re sitting in the changing room thinking: “Where has this batting been all season? If you had of played like this, you wouldn’t be off.” It reinforced to us in the changing room, as we discussed in hushed tones, he was only playing for himself. No sense of team.

No one likes players that play this way. Going from one contract to another, and often good contracts because of the handy “in the front of the mind late season runs” and the element of promise of things to come. The good eggs, the team players, hate this. Perhaps that’s hard for a coach to see sometimes because runs and wickets are the monetary value that their jobs are judged upon as well and it takes guts to dump a guy that’s finished so well.

Get shot of him and start the next season badly then fingers will be pointed at you.

It’s also time for players to assess their future. Where do they want to be? Who do they want to play for? Do they even want to play? Players often fall out of love with the game, with the system. Injuries and non-selection when fit can be a quick road to being “fed up” and an exit from the game, or a shift of teams and scenes.

I’ve heard of a player who didn’t want to sign the contract extension that was proposed by his club. He wanted to see what else was out there for him, see where he could get, see what he could earn. A big player at a small club looking for the best for himself and his family. A cricketer’s career, if they are very lucky, can be 10 years. Why wouldn’t an employee want the best for his career; a promotion, a pay rise, better working conditions, nicer office, and a greater challenge?

Turning down the contract, though, promoted an alcohol-fuelled tirade from the club chairman towards the player. He was called a “f**king disgrace” amongst other things and had his loyalty questioned. The player, ironically, joined the club from another so was never a local. No other players saw or heard this “discussion” but they soon heard all about it the next day in the changing room. Eventually the Chairman apologised, but too late, the player had already made up his mind and left the club for greener pastures.

Those that are cut, those that are out of contract and can’t find another club to move onto have that horrible decision. Retirement or, or what? What to do now? A lot of players only know cricket, have only been involved in cricket, and haven’t prepared for their cricket career ending. Where too for them?