Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Daryl Mitchell, Vikram Solanki and Mark Wallace recall their time as PCA Chair as hunt for new leader begins.
With James Harris’ four-year stint as Chair coming to an end, the PCA has already started the quest to find a new leader to represent cricketers in England & Wales.
First elected Chair in 2021, the Glamorgan seamer will bow out of the role once he completes his second term in March 2025.
The most important position within the PCA, the Chair plays a vital role in off-field negotiations with the ECB and key stakeholders, influencing decisions for the betterment of male and female players in the country.
Applications for the PCA Chair are already open with December 4 being the final day for players to send in their interest. Any active player with two or more years remaining on their contract are eligible to stand regardless of their age, experience or prior involvement with the PCA and all current players have been emailed details on the application process.
PCA Interim Chief Executive Daryl Mitchell has sat down with two of his PCA Chair predecessors in Vikram Solanki, who is now Director of Cricket at IPL outfit Gujarat Titans and Mark Wallace, who holds a similar role at Glamorgan. The trio of 12 years of experience leading the player voice shed more light on the role, what is expected out of the position and the major challenges and learnings they attained during their respective terms.
Why did you decide to be Chair and why did you think that the role was for you?
- Solanki: I distinctly remember why I decided to get involved with the PCA. I realised the benefits that I had with the Association behind me as a player back in 2009 before the tour to Zimbabwe. That situation benefited me from understanding the broader perspective on sport and politics.
- Wallace: I had been a PCA Rep for quite a long time from a very young age at Glamorgan, so I had a reasonably good understanding of what the PCA did. When the opportunity to put your name in the hat as Chair came up, I was really keen because I wanted to use my experience as a county cricketer to help the PCA and try and be part of something which I really admired.
- Mitchell: Similar to Mark, I was a PCA Rep for seven or eight years before I took the Chair role. I was in the same dressing room as Vik (Solanki) during his tenure. I used to speak to him pretty regularly around what was going on in in the world regarding PCA and what was going on with his role so getting an insight as to what he was up to was actually a real benefit to me.
Were you aware of the size and responsibilities of the role?
- Solanki: I think I did. When you have been playing for a good number of years, you understand the benefits as well as the shortfalls of county cricket and the challenges around it. You understand the issues around trying to create a structure and a format that’s beneficial to English cricket yet still be responsible enough to its membership.
- Wallace: I was quite confident that I knew what I knew and I was also quite confident around representation of players and how they thought. During my time at the PCA, the quality of people around enabled me to learn things very quickly and help me out with the bits that I wasn’t quite sure of, giving me a guiding hand which allowed me to do the job for four years and grow with it.
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What were some of the biggest challenges and learnings during your stint?
- Solanki: The ever-changing landscape with cricket throws challenges time and again. The variety of challenges you take is almost the biggest challenge in itself. It is not necessarily that you are firefighting on a number of fronts, but there are a number of things that you have to keep your head engaged in which was quite interesting. The greatest learning I got from being involved was that you might very well disagree with a with an opinion, but actually forcing yourself to appreciate that view, allowing yourself to understand the other party within a negotiation or a conversation has been something that I have taken from my time at the PCA.
- Wallace: As far as greatest challenges, we had a change of CEO. Going through that process and the recruitment was challenging but at the same time was really interesting. You tend to find on those things, you get a huge amount of support. One of the beauties of the PCA is that there are so many different areas which we go into, be it commercial, mental health, marketing or cricketing issues some of which pop out of nowhere and some which seem to go on forever. Being on top of all those broad range of things going on was initially little bit of a challenge. I found it a real evolving experience where no two days were necessarily the same which I think is one the beauties of the role.
- Mitchell: My biggest challenge was undoubtedly COVID. My four-year stint as Chair coincided with the pandemic. We had a new broadcast deal, we negotiated a new standard contract, building The Hundred from ground up. Everything was on the upward trajectory and then the pandemic hit. All of a sudden, we were discussing pay cuts affecting our members’ daily lives in terms of money in their pockets. Looking back, however, I am most proud of bringing the players and the Reps together. We saved somewhere in the region of £15 million which kept the game going and kept some counties afloat.
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What advice would you give to people who are considering applying and how has this role helped you in life after cricket?
- Solanki: I have no doubt in my mind that the role that I have secured now has come about as a result of the experiences I had as well as the connections I made at the PCA. The greatest benefit with my involvement with the Association is the mentorships that I have been able to plug into and I continue to do so. If you happen to get the role, then you will certainly have access to all the past players and I’m sure you will have access to the three of us and we will be happy to help. We are all aware of the great job the PCA does and if you want to play a part in that, I think you should definitely consider applying.
- Wallace: I gained so much from my role with the PCA. You will get so much personal and professional benefits, and it will be something that you look back on and be proud of what you have done. If you are the sort of person who wakes up in the morning and goes straight to Cricinfo because you want to know what’s happening in in the world of cricket or who actually cares about the game and its future and your fellow professionals, you are absolutely the sort of person that should be going in for this role. Anything you need to learn, you will learn on the job. I am currently in a role as Director of Cricket at Glamorgan and undoubtedly the time as PCA Chair helped me to get into my current role.
The PCA Chair will lead the PCA Committee and you can read more here. Meanwhile, current players interested in the role can get in touch with James Harris or Daryl Mitchell.
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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.
