PCA PRESS RELEASE
The Professional Cricketers’ Association will provide further support to help prepare players for life after cricket by running an inaugural Transition Conference at Edgbaston this week as part of the PCA’s ‘Transition Week’.
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The two-day conference, on November 8 and 9, will supplement the work that the PCA’s six-strong team of Personal Development and Welfare Managers do in preparing players for a career after cricket throughout their playing days and supporting them after they have left the county game.
Since 2012, the PCA’s Personal Development and Welfare Managers have guided 178 players into a varied range of second careers. In that time 28% of players have moved into cricket coaching with physiotherapy, professional golf, umpiring, financial services, the oil industry, sports management and jobs with the England and Wales Cricket Board among the 33 different occupations*.
Former Warwickshire batsman Jon Webb now works at the ECB as a marketing executive and is one of two former players who have transitioned into a career in marketing since 2012. Having gained valuable work experience working in Warwickshire’s marketing department while he was recovering from injury in 2015, Webb is thankful for guidance from the PCA.
“Having a Plan B and embracing the support we have from the PCA is a no-brainer,” said Webb.
In the last five years, 13 former players have entered the world of business development with former Worcestershire slow left-armer Shaaiq Choudhry setting up his own start-up business, Brothers Circle, which produces snapbacks and beanies. While he was still playing, Choudhry started a graphic design degree and spent time working for a Worcester-based marketing agency.
“I wouldn’t be where I am now without the help Lynsey Williams, who was my PDM at Worcestershire, gave me. She always gave me a nudge to give it that bit extra,” Choudhry said.
“She always backed my ideas. I had some crazy ideas along the way and some confusion about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, but Lynsey always provided the support that I needed.”
Callum Jackson, the former Sussex and Kent wicketkeeper, also began planning for life after cricket while he was still playing and benefited from the advice of Nick Denning, his PDM at Sussex.
PCA funding enabled Jackson to become one of five players in the last five years who have qualified as personal trainers and to devise and launch Slate, an app designed to help sports clubs track players’ match fees.
“The PCA have helped me a lot. They got me through my personal training qualification while I was with Sussex and my spinning qualification after my last year at Kent,” Jackson said.
“Those courses are not cheap and I wouldn’t have been able to do them without the PCA funding.
“Also having Nick Denning there advising on what I should be looking to do outside cricket was a great help. I don’t think I would have done the courses without that guidance.
“We also did business workshops when I was in the academy at Sussex and that has certainly helped with setting up Slate and becoming a self-employed personal trainer.”
Presenters at the inaugural PCA Transition Conference will include Worcestershire batting and Second XI coach Kevin Sharp, former Essex, Worcestershire and Northamptonshire batsman Stephen Peters, Leicestershire’s new head coach Paul Nixon and former Hampshire and Surrey pace bowler David Balcombe who will discuss their successful transition from playing into a second career inside or outside of county cricket.
“The PCA Personal Development and Welfare team continue to provide opportunities and direction for players currently preparing for or going through transition,” said Ian Thomas, the PCA Director of Development and Welfare.
“The aim of the two-day conference is to provide a blend of self-reflective talks, practical advice and leave players feeling motivated and with goals.
“The majority of quality work with players is done between them and their regional PDMs, but having group sessions like this can help in other ways.
“The nice aspect of this project is that we have a large amount of past players involved, who want to help other players in sharing their journeys. That in itself is highly motivating and reassuring.”
For more information on the PCA’s Personal Development and Welfare Programme click here.
