Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
PCA Chair urges players to learn at every step during the course of the Futures Conference.
PCA Chair and Glamorgan bowler James Harris wants past and present players to make full use of the 2024 Futures Conference.
Harris has already taken the road towards his personal development whilst simultaneously playing professional cricket for Glamorgan.
Alongside chairing the PCA since 2021, the 34-year-old also possesses a Business Degree and is currently pursuing yet another course as a chiropractor.
The 2024 Futures Conference will take place on 6 and 7 November at the England football team’s training base, St. George’s Park and will be open to all past and present players. The event is packed with workshops and seminars which are targeted towards building a player’s career off the field.
It allows past and present players to get together and network amongst themselves and several career experts which enables players to understand and fill in their skill sets.
In the weeks leading up to the Futures Conference, the PCA will share stories from previous attendees and shed light on how the event benefitted them in their personal development.
To start, we have the PCA’s Chair James Harris sharing some crucial insights into his experiences whilst attending the 2019 Futures Conference. Harris attended the conference alongside Olly Stone, Zak Chappell and Wayne Madsen.
The Glamorgan pacer advises this year’s participants to come into the event with an open mindset and try and learn from every bit of positive or negative information they receive.
- What where your motivations behind attending the Futures Conference? What did you learn from them?
- Harris: I tried to go very early. I’ve been involved with PCA in different sorts of roles now for a few years. I know that this career is finite, and it is going to come to an end at some point, and I want to be as prepared as possible when that time comes. So, I think I just wanted to get a taste of basically how it works, what is being discussed and trying to be as prepared as possible for life after cricket. The importance of networking and creating relationships, leveraging your current position as a cricketer, and trying out all sorts of things to find what may fit and what doesn’t, shouldn’t be understated. During the winter months, depending on what you are doing, it gives you an opportunity to really plan and prepare for your future.
- Where are you currently with your career and personal development? How are you finding that?
- Harris: Getting towards the latter end of my playing career, I completed a Business degree four or so years ago and just started a Chiropractic degree in early 2024, a specialised, niche area of which I’m likely to transition into in the future. At the moment, it is quite challenging. I have an exam coming up which was tough to study for during the early part of the summer but very doable with some discipline.
- According to you, when is the best time for a player to start thinking about their second career?
- Harris: The first thing I would say is you can never be prepared for anything, so at the earliest, rather than later. You know when you feel like the time is right in your calendar. The more prepared you can be for anything that is coming ahead of you, can only be a positive. There is not too early and there is never too late. If you’re at the point where you feel like you haven’t done enough preparation for your second career, now is the time to get on with it and to get yourself as prepared as you possibly can be. Personal development has to fit around playing cricket, so there is occasionally some juggling, but they can coexist. Many players have done some really quite impressive things alongside their playing careers, and they got themselves well qualified and to be able to transition when they finish.
- What would you say to players who are thinking about attending the 2024 Futures Conference?
- Harris: Well, first of all, if you’re even considering it, I’d say sign up and go. It’s a brilliant couple of days. I went not knowing or having really any idea with what it has do with my future after finishing. So that is by no means a prerequisite that you have to come with the answers and know what it is you want to do. Sometimes you have to talk to people to find out what you don’t want to achieve. Sometimes that is just as important. You tick off the boxes and things you definitely know you don’t want to do. You can narrow things down that way. Having different experiences, talking to people, talking to former players who have been through this, trying to pick up and learn from their experiences, they are all very, very valuable. Every little nugget of information can lead a long the way, and from there you can try to narrow it down and put yourself on a path to prepare what your future holds.
PCA Futures Conference is open to all past and present players.
Please register your interest by clicking the button below and filling in the form as there are limited places available.
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Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
