Harry Gurney Hard Hit?

'We have no idea where the next pay packet is coming from' - Why freelance cricketers are suffering most in lockdown

While those on full-time contracts retain some sense of security, freelance short-format players stand to take the greatest financial hit

ByTim Wigmore17 April 2020 

Harry Gurney is in limbo, not knowing when and where he will employed again .

Last month, Harry Gurney was house-hunting with his wife. Then, as the severity of the coronavirus became clear, they swiftly backtracked. 

“I said to her, 'we're gonna have to put that on the backburner and and live off the deposit we've saved up because I don't know where the next pay packet's coming from or when the next game of cricket's gonna 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 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 - Gurney would have no other cricket income to fall back on. 

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 only standing to lose around 20 per cent of their county salaries.

Alex Hales is another freelance cricketer with financial uncertainty CREDIT: AP

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 will lose all of his £85,000 fee. And, as Telegraph Sport first reported, if the 2020 Hundred is cancelled, players are only likely to receive 5 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.”

To try and 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 and save jobs.

As is common among freelance players, Gurney takes out insurance to guard against missing out on tournaments. For a fee generally around 6 per cent of his tournament salary, Gurney’s insurance policy covers him in case of injury. 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. Unless you are AB de Villiers, no cricketer on the T20 freelance circuit is immune to worries about the vicissitudes of fitness and form damaging their appeal. And so an ill-timed bad run of form, or injury, stands to not only 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,” says Gurney. “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 normalcy. The schedule when cricket restarts could be even more congested - creating more opportunities for freelance players like Gurney and, if tournaments overlap, more chances for less-heralded T20 cricketers too. 

“It’s a global game - there’s going to be different opportunities around the world,” says James Cross, an agent for the 366 Group agency whose clients include Hales. “One positive from their perspective is in six to eight months’ time there could be even more tournaments running.” 

But if that doesn’t transpire, players and their agents are already making emergency contingency plans. Some players, Cross says, are now considering taking out special extra insurance that does cover pandemics - though this is much more expensive. 

Yet, whatever the heightened uncertainties he now faces, Gurney is in no doubt about the wisdom of his decision to become a T20 freelance player - a journey that has already taken him to the Indian Premier League, Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League and Big Bash. 

“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.”

For now, Gurney faces a plight typical of freelance cricketers and beyond. “You’ve got just to get on with it, haven’t you? And try and make the best of it.” 

Harry Gurney on poker, Mr Bean and becoming a T20 great

This story was originally due to be told in a different world.

It was a time when the impact of Covid-19 was a threat, rather than a reality. When leaving the house was a luxury taken for granted. When queuing to get into a shop only happened in the early hours of Boxing Day. Pubs were still open.

In this particular pub, just outside Melton Mowbray, one of the owners is sitting under the window, tapping away on a laptop.

He also happens to be one of Twenty20 cricket's leading bowlers of the past 18 months. His business partner is second on the list of England's all-time Test wicket-takers.

In the ensuing conversation with Harry Gurney, his intelligence, thoughtfulness and assuredness mean it is no surprise when, shortly after social distancing measures are introduced, the Tap and Run is turned into a takeaway and village shop not only to serve the community, but also in an attempt to protect the jobs of its staff.

That, though, is for the future. We start in the past, and how Gurney, Nottinghamshire team-mate Stuart Broad and their friend Dan Cramp came to own this gastropub and its forerunner, the Three Crowns.

"The Three Crowns became available and I had the crazy idea of taking it on," says Gurney. "Dan was running the Larwood & Voce at Trent Bridge at the time, and I asked him to come for a pint to discuss what he thought about the prospect of it.

"Dan and Broady had often talked about doing a pub together, so we went round to Broady's house with a proposal. Within 24 hours, he was on board."

Gurney, a 33-year-old left-arm seamer, describes himself as "very hands on" and chairs meetings of the management team every Monday morning.

When he's unavailable - franchise cricket has taken him to Australia, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean in the past year or so - his wife takes charge.

And Broad? "The only time Broady pulls pints is when we have photographers in here and they ask him to do it," says Gurney. "He's useless. It's always got a massive head on it. He's OK at pouring a glass of red. What he is good at is sitting, eating and drinking.

"But, like I have, he's put his hand in his pocket to invest. People come in here saying 'Is Stuart here? This is his pub, isn't it?' We've started putting his name on our advertising.

"People often ask me if I mind flying under the radar, which I don't. One of the reasons I'm in business with Broady, apart from the fact that we're mates, is to use his profile."

The ability to make clear-headed, calm and calculated manoeuvres in business probably goes hand in hand with the temperament to bowl the crucial overs in the world's biggest T20 tournaments.

Gurney, who has a degree in economics and says he would probably have worked in the City had he not become a cricketer, believes his decision-making skills were honed at the poker table.

"I got released by Leicestershire in 2008 and I went off and tried to become a professional poker player," he explains. "I had an online poker sponsorship. They'd give me $500 a day. At the end of the day, they'd take the profit and if I was down, they'd top it up. At the end of the month, we split the overall profit.

"The problem is there was never any profit and I got flicked after about three months.

"I still play a little bit. Poker helps you hone your decision-making process. when it comes to making decisions in life, in business and on the cricket pitch, when you weigh up the pros and cons, all of those hours sat at poker tables have had an influence."

Poker sidelined and cricket career back on track, Gurney joined Notts for the 2012 season and was playing for England two years later. All of his 10 one-day international and two T20 caps came in 2014.

Although he admits he was never likely to play Test cricket, Gurney remained a mainstay of the Notts attack in first-class cricket and was their leading wicket-taker in the County Championship in 2018.

By then, though, he was plotting a change.

"I'd got to the point where I wasn't enjoying four-day cricket, but I wasn't in the position financially where I could afford to retire because I wasn't playing franchise cricket. I continued to do so for a couple of years, slightly reluctantly," he says.

"Sitting on the team bus in 2018, I made the decision to try to pursue the franchise world. I'd had a good record in the T20 Blast and I decided to try my hardest that winter to get involved in the overseas leagues.

"One particular night was the catalyst for it. We were playing Yorkshire at Headingley. Dan Christian, the Notts captain, said at the toss that I was as the best death bowler in the world. The game was televised and a lot of people probably sat at home and laughed. But, rightly or wrongly, it drew attention to me.

"I bowled the last over of the innings at Kane Williamson, who had just got the orange cap in the IPL, and Tim Bresnan. It only went for one run off the bat and that night my social media really began to take off.

"Within a few weeks I had a Big Bash contract, a PSL contract, an IPL contract and a T10 contract. I'd gone from nothing to all of them."

Earning the contracts is one thing. Making a success out of them is another.

In 2019, the only fast bowler to take more wickets in T20 cricket than Gurney was Pakistan's Wahab Riaz. Gurney won the Caribbean Premier League with Barbados Tridents and the Pakistan Super League with Quetta Gladiators.

During his time in the Big Bash League, Gurney's awkward, mechanical action led Australia legend Mark Waugh to say he looked like Mr Bean.

When Gurney's Melbourne Renegades took the title, Gurney was able to reply by tweeting: "Mr Bean has a BBL winners' medal."

At the time of our conversation, Gurney thought he was a week away from heading to his second season in the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders.

If and when this year's edition of cricket's biggest domestic competition gets under way, he will once again link up with West Indian megastar Andre Russell - "it's like playing cricket with a giant or someone with superpowers; the way he fields, the way he strikes the ball, it's like men against boys" - and welcome the new signing of Australia pace bowler Pat Cummins - "I'll probably learn what goes in his water bottle, because I expect to be mixing his drinks".

Also in the KKR dressing room will be England captain Eoin Morgan, presenting Gurney with the opportunity to press a claim for a place at T20 World Cup, one of the few global sporting events remaining on this year's calendar.

Although he admits the World Cup in October and November has "crossed my mind", Gurney's ambition is also to complete the set of major franchise titles by winning the IPL and The Hundred, whenever the new competition is born.

If and when he does, there are a couple of pubs ready to host the celebrations.

Then again, just being in the pub would be cause for us all to celebrate.