Many of the world’s most established short-form players were up for sale at Thursday’s Hundred auction, Aiden Markram, Jonny Bairstow, Trent Boult and Adil Rashid among them. But it was a 21-year-old allrounder who is yet to win his first international cap that attracted the highest bid of the day, topping out at an eye-watering £390,000 (US$522,000).
Sussex’s James Coles was widely expected to be in demand at the auction after a breakthrough winter, both for Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the SA20 and for England Lions. Even still, it was remarkable to see such substantial spending on a player who earned £31,000 at Southern Brave last year, with London Spirit prevailing in a five-way bidding war.
Beyond his obvious talent and high potential, there were three main contributing factors that prompted Coles to fetch such a remarkable price: the scarce supply of English allrounders with his skillset at the auction; the timing of his performances this winter; and the Hundred’s contracting system under the new auction model.
With players like Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone and Rehan Ahmed all pre-signed ahead of the auction, Coles was the standout domestic player available in his role as a spin-bowling genuine allrounder, who can bat in the top four. “He’s an allrounder, and allrounders are valuable in auctions,” Andy Flower, Spirit’s head coach, explained. “They allow you to balance your team.”
Coles became Spirit’s third allrounder after they pre-signed Livingstone and Jamie Overton; as a result, their first-choice side will feature four fast bowlers, three spin options, and a deep batting line-up to No. 8. They had put significant funds aside specifically to target Coles: “He went for something just above what we thought he might go for,” Flower said.
There was also a clear premium on English talent throughout the auction, even with teams allowed to pick a fourth overseas player this season. There was a huge spread of options for only 16 remaining overseas spots, and the highest bid for an overseas player was the £200,000 that Manchester Super Giants spent on Markram.
Spirit eventually saw off competition from Sunrisers Leeds, who were obvious suitors after Coles’s success for their SA20 team, and immediately spent £210,000 on a similar player in Dan Lawrence. Coles had long hoped for such a scenario: he recently told ESPNcricinfo he had chosen the SA20 over the Big Bash last winter so that he could impress IPL owners first-hand.
His timing could hardly have been better: if the auction had been held before Christmas, Coles would likely have fetched a far smaller sum. But his performances in South Africa – and for the Lions against Pakistan Shaheens – were seen as proof that he was starting to convert his potential into performance.
The contracting system also played into Coles’ favour. The Hundred’s auction cycle will replicate the IPL model, giving teams the right to retain the players they have signed for the two subsequent seasons at the same fee. As a result, many teams took the opportunity to lock in young players as three-year bets: Coles will be 25 by the time of the next mega-auction.
Three members of the England side that reached the Under-19 World Cup final won deals for similar reasons: Trent Rockets signed Hampshire’s Ben Mayes, while Southern Brave spent a combined £135,000 on Somerset’s Thomas Rew and Middlesex’s Caleb Falconer after they caught head coach Hemang Badani’s eye with their performances in Zimbabwe.
For Coles, the pressure of a substantial price tag is a new challenge. “As you get used to understanding how auctions work, this is the nature of it: someone is going to be the highest-paid player,” Mo Bobat, Spirit’s director of cricket, said. “Hopefully, he’ll look at it feeling really proud of what he’s achieved, and it makes him understand that we really value him.”
He has also worked under the key decision-makers on the Spirit table previously. Coles left a positive impression on Bobat – and Dinesh Karthik, Spirit’s batting coach – at previous England Lions camps; Flower briefly coached him at the Abu Dhabi T10 late last year, and Flower’s younger brother Grant is Coles’ batting coach at Sussex.
Buying Coles left Spirit short on funds for the rest of the auction, to the extent that only one of their final seven signings – which included two overseas players – cost over £50,000. But they were adamant that securing a young, English allrounder was the right long-term play.
“We know the personality,” Karthik said. “He’s a very sorted kid, someone who doesn’t get too carried away or too frazzled. Yes, there is a high price, but at some point of time when you do well in life, you have to deal with it, and I think he is at a stage when he’s ready to deal with it… Everything will tell you that his graph is only going to go up.”
