Q&A with David Leatherdale, the PCA’s new Chief Executive Q. Congratulations on your appointment. How did it come about? It goes back to last September when Angus Porter announced he would be retiring. I wasn’t actually looking to leave Worcestershire but to have the chance to work for and support an organisation that is very much in my blood and which supported me for 20 years as a player was not something I could turn down. I played for Worcestershire for 20 years and worked for the club in a non-cricket capacity for a further 10 years. This is an opportunity to work for the whole game. Hopefully some of my expertise and cricket knowledge and the skills that I have developed over the last ten years at commercial level will stand me in good stead. The interview process began in November which meant trips to London, three interviews, presentations and a very thorough recruitment process. I was offered the job the week before Christmas and telling Steve Taylor, the chairman at Worcestershire, on Christmas Eve that I would be leaving wasn’t the most pleasant thing I have had to do. But Worcestershire were very supportive and there have been some very nice comments from board members and other people at the club about the progress that has been made over the last 10 years. Hopefully I can bring some of that expertise into the PCA. Q. These are early days but what are your first impressions of the PCA? My first PCA event was the Rookie Camp at Edgbaston which I thought was exceptional. There was nothing like that when I joined Worcestershire 30 years ago and I think it’s a fantastic move forward. The first year professionals had the opportunity to listen and learn from Mervyn Westfield and Chris Lewis about the mistakes they made but the session with Paul Buck, a compulsive gambler who also went to prison, was engrossing. Issues such as match fixing and gambling were not on the radar when I started my county career. Q. What was the PCA like when you first became a member? We used to have an AGM which was usually at Edgbaston and everyone attended because it was planned around a lunch or a dinner. There were a couple of events which revolved around Hawkestone Park Golf Club in Shropshire which is where the PCA offices were in those days. But did we have a pension scheme? No we didn’t. The clubs had a pension set-up but it was a non-contributory scheme so it was very much down to the individual county as to whether they made any contributions or not. Was there anti-corruption education? Was there anything to help and support players with gambling? No, all those things have progressed over the last ten years, but particularly over the last five years. There was a Professional Cricketers’ Trust but the numbers were far less than they are now. Players’ salaries were much lower in the late 1980s – I remember my first salary was £ 3,000 and half of that went on rent – and we were on six month contracts so we had to find other work in the winter months, something that probably helped me recognise that while playing cricket as a living was great, there was a life outside that as well. Players are now on year-round contracts and the PCA, through the team of Personal Development and Welfare Managers, does an outstanding job in helping players to plan for life after cricket. So the Association has moved on enormously since I first became a member and that is through the hard work and dedication of the staff, some of whom have worked for the organisation for a long time. Q. What jobs did you do during the winter months when you were playing? I did many different things. Like many youngsters I had a couple of winters playing abroad when I first joined the staff. After that I worked in a metalwork yard, for the city council, before working in Worcestershire’s commercial department after the club advertised a role for a player, seven players applied and I got the job. I worked for Radio Wyvern on their charity Snowball appeal which raised £ 36,000 in the first year and just short of £ 100,000 in the second year. I did some work for Goodform, a CRM company that the PCA still use, worked as commercial manager for Crusader Sport and Leisure, who were kit suppliers for five counties at one stage, and for an accountancy firm in Halesowen for a year. I was never going to be an accountant because there were 21 year-olds there who were getting three months off to study while I was combining the job with cricket. It would have probably taken me 10 years to get qualified. But going out and doing audits gave me an understanding of the numbers and figures which came in useful when I worked for Crusader and then went into the commercial department at Worcestershire and has been vital in my role as CEO at New Road. It’s important that players put themselves out there and do other things. They might not always find the job that they want to do in 20 or 30 years’ time but they will probably find out things that they don’t want to do and also find out a great deal about themselves. It also makes you appreciate how lucky you are to be a professional cricketer no matter how long you are one for. Q. If you hadn’t been a cricketer what would you have done? I got offered a place at Newcastle University to study geography and geology. Cricket was not fully on the radar at that time and we had spent a lot of time on holiday in the Lake District where we used to go caravanning and walking. I had this vision that after university I would go and work for the Forestry Commission in the Lake District. But I played cricket for Yorkshire Schools and was batsman of the Festival at Oxford when I was 17. Yorkshire then asked me to sign registration forms but they wouldn’t commit to offering me a couple of second team matches. At that time Steve Rhodes and Richard Illingworth, who were from Bradford, had joined Worcestershire and it was Richard’s dad, Keith, who suggested that I write to them for a trial. I played one second team match for them in 1985 against Leicestershire at Ombersley and I played half of the 1986 season while I was finishing my A Levels before I was offered my first contract. I used to catch the 6am train from Leeds on a Monday morning, got into Worcester at about 9am and was then picked up and driven to wherever we were playing. On Friday evening I would catch the train back to Leeds and play in the Bradford League on a Saturday. Q. You say the PCA has changed significantly since you signed your first contract, what shape do you think it is in? I think it is in pretty good nick. Angus came in five years ago at a difficult time, a similar base to where I was at Worcester. The club was going through quite a transition and the PCA was going through a transitional period. Financially it’s in a sound place. The feeling is it’s in a very good position, the question is how does it go from good to the next level? We also have to be aware of the big items that are going to be drop on our doorstep and there is no doubt that domestic structure is a major issue but there a many other issues facing today’s new group of young cricketers as well as many of our past cricketers too who are a major part of the work the PCA does. Q. What are the challenges with domestic structure? The game across the world is changing very quickly. When you see 81,000 people watching a domestic game at the MCG it’s difficult to argue with that. In England it’s a different set up and a different structure but there is a great deal of talk with regards change for the 2017 season and beyond. It’s important that the voice of the players is heard when it comes to decisions that might affect players, not just next year but in the next five to 10 years. It’s important that the PCA interacts with players across all age groups. Naturally, senior players may have stronger views because they have been involved in the game longer. Younger players who are new to professional cricket might not feel they have that knowledge so the role of the PCA is to make sure they are fully aware of all matters that affect their future. Q. Is the fact that you already sit on the ECB cricket committee an advantage? I hope so. I have been on the cricket committee for more than four years and I have been part of the new helmet safety protocols and many rules and regulation changes. I know Colin Graves and Tom Harrison, who I played Second XI cricket with at Worcestershire and he was ECB commercial manager when I was Worcestershire’s commercial manager. Hopefully I can make those relationships work and make sure that we are at the right table when decisions are made and that players are very much part of that process and any decisions made are for the good of the game as a whole. {{ak_sharing}}
