Book Review: The Life Of A Sports Agent - The Middleman by Luke Sutton

Agents eh? The ruination of sport and the root cause of many of its issues. They make loads of money, rip off their clients, don't really do that much and are perceived as 'sharks' by perhaps too many people for comfort.

And yet.. like any other profession there are a minority who tarnish the good name of plenty of others, working quietly and professionally under the radar. Like Luke Sutton, the former Derbyshire cricketer and captain. 

Regular readers will recall my review of his fairly harrowing first book, which dealt with his ultimately successful battles with his addictions. Many were oblivious to this in his playing days, just as there will be plenty who are unaware of the range of work involved in being a successful agent.

I am grateful to Luke for sending a copy of his excellent book to me ahead of its publication date at the end of this month. It is a really good read, full of relatable stories and names that will aid understanding of the work that agents do.

What impressed me most, as in his first book, is his honesty. He doesn't claim to have got everything right, freely admitting to mistakes along the way, but that is only natural. We are all human after all, but the detailed 'case studies' of his relationship with four very different clients are fascinating.

There are cricketers James Taylor and Jimmy Anderson, Olympic gymnast and social media star Nile Wilson and Olympic hockey gold medallist and now multi-faceted personality Samantha Quek, all profiled in detail alongside others, who flit in and out of the pages.

Each has enjoyed their time in the limelight but have faced challenges away from it. Taylor's heart condition that caused his premature retirement is well-documented, but hearing it from a man who first helped support him and then find a new career is fascinating. Equally so that of Wilson, who had it all yet could quite easily have lost it, but for support from his family and an agent who had 'been there' himself. Meanwhile Quek emerges as a shrewd and talented young woman, savvy enough to reject lucrative modelling offers so as not to distract from what she was really about, an articulate, personable and knowledgeable commentator on a range of sports, who was helped by an honest agent to escape the restrictive 'bubble' of hockey.

Luke's honesty and support will have been appreciated by all of them. It is not about signing lucrative deal after deal, it is being there for them in the bad times, advising them correctly on the many offers that come their way, being organised, understanding the media and working with them. Indeed, what impressed me was how his clients were encouraged to develop their interactions and profiles on social media and use it properly. 

'The highs are beautiful, but the lows can be very dark' he writes. By the end of the book I was left with the feeling that were I sufficiently famous I could work with someone like Luke. Friendly, accessible, supportive and seemingly calm under pressure, he has established a strong roster of clients and understandably so. 

The book is a must read for anyone thinking of such a career, but also for those who enjoy a different angle on sports, celebrity and the challenges faced by those perceived to have it all. 

Cricket fans will find much to enjoy, as the likes of Peter Moores, Haseeb Hamid, Tom Moores and plenty of others flit through the pages. Yet the real fascination for me was in seeing how Quek and Wilson, successful in niche sports, were helped to become broader and successful personalities outside of the sports that made their name. 

It deserves to do well and I would heartily recommend it to be added to your festive wish list. 

The Life Of A Sports Agent: The Middleman is written by Luke Sutton and published by White Owl, priced £12.99.

Available from all good book shops. 

Cool hands Luke

Given that we now know he was battling depression, had a hand injury and faced, with his wife, concerns over the health of their daughter, the astonishing fact is that Luke Sutton did as well as he did last season.

Add into the mix the shenanigans around the departure of John Morris and Andrew Brown and that he was still big enough to stand up and take some of the heat and you get some idea of the measure of the man. Yes, Sutton as a batsman was a shadow of the one we saw in his first stint at the County Ground. but he was still good enough to score 500 Championship runs, something few others managed around the country, especially those batting down the order. There was an occasional dropped catch too, but not many and Sutton's glovework remained a solid feature of Derbyshire's improved outcricket that his successor, presumably Tom Poynton, will have to work hard to match.

Keeping wicket, especially at first-class level, is akin to being a goalkeeper at football. Others in the side can make mistakes and few will notice, whereas a wicket-keeper's errors, like the football custodian, tend to be exaggerated and emphasised. That being the case, Sutton did a fine job and when one considers that he also held the captaincy his efforts were extraordinary and deserving of the highest praise.

Most of all we will miss the captain, the old head in the dressing room. As a player with three counties behind him, Sutton had been involved in match situations that undoubtedly helped when things got tight. He led a happy and united squad and was a major factor in an improved Derbyshire side in 2011.

In the light of what we now know, I hope Derbyshire fans, when commenting on our form and fortunes in the future, think twice before being overly vitriolic. You never know what is going on in people's lives and it is patently unfair to make comments such as some of those that were hurled in Sutton's direction last season, especially when he struggled for runs in restricted limited over opportunities. I'm not sure what some expected, to be honest, when he often came in with two overs to go. Anyone who has played the game knows that you're on a hiding to nothing in such circumstances and for every time you blaze 20 from six balls there are plenty when you lob a gentle catch to mid-wicket, victim of the need to hit before you're used to the pace of the wicket and the bowling.

I'd like to thank Luke Sutton for being a very good Derbyshire cricketer in both his stints for the club. Irrespective of anything else he was a role model for his peers, polite with fans and always, always one hundred per cent committed to the cause.

He will be missed. Thanks Luke.

Chris Grant says that his replacement will be announced within days and although I'm sure the club have known of this for some time, my guess is that the successor will be from within. The thinking money would be on either Wes Durston or Wayne Madsen, though with 56 and 63 first-class games behind them respectively they are some way short of extensive experience. Madsen, however, has shown loyalty to the club that perhaps deserves to be rewarded. A player of genuine talent, his dip in form last season will only be temporary and an opportunity to lead the side may be the catalyst to greater things. He would be my choice and I think the players will respond to the promotion of an intelligent and articulate man who has become a vital cog in the side. Durston or Tim Groenewald would make an able deputy and I feel a young side would continue to develop with such men at the helm.

As for the wicket-keeping role, while I have seen suggestions of looking for an experienced replacement, I see no merit in the idea. We have an obviously able young prospect with bat and gloves in Tom Poynton and this is now his time. If we are serious about an Academy side, we need to blood players when the opportunity arises and that is now for TP. I'll accept there is no experienced backup, but Chris Durham is highly thought of and if these lads don't get the opportunities we will never know how good they can be.

For what it is worth, after some thought I'd be inclined to use the money from Sutton's salary for another seamer. While I would be far from unhappy if we moved for Jamie Dalrymple, I feel our greatest need in the squad is for another experienced seam bowler. Quite who is available is unclear, but we only need a couple of injuries to Messrs Groenewald, Palladino, Clare, Footitt and Turner and we have a major problem. The one weakness of the current Academy is that there is no obvious seam bowler ready to burst onto the scene. I'd like to see that change in the coming months.

It will make for an interesting time, that's for sure.

More changes at the County Ground

So, not only is Luke Sutton back at Derbyshire but he is installed as skipper. Having been impressed by him in that role in his previous stint, I'm delighted with this turn of events.


First and foremost, a captain has to be worth a place in the side (unless he is especially gifted as a skipper) and with Sutton we have no fears in this regard. An excellent wicket-keeper and, in his first spell, very solid batsman capable of opening the innings on occasion, Sutton led from the front and will do again. He is exactly what the team needs and, having suggested it myself on this blog, I am very pleased with the turn of events.

Of course, it appears that this may be a consequence of Greg Smith's inconclusive contract talks and John Morris is absolutely right in not giving him the captaincy at this stage. Trying to skipper, bat well, bowl seam and spin then worry about your contract negotiations was a recipe for disaster. I rate Smith as a cricketer, but the workload on him was already considerable and there was a fairly obvious tailing off in his level of performance last season. That being the case, either he or his advisor was misguided in choosing this time to renegotiate a deal. Such things need to be done from a position of strength, in Smith's case after a prolific season with bat and/or ball. As it is, it smacks of someone returning to work after several weeks off and asking for some time off…

While the door appears to be open for Smith and he has not yet closed it on the county, my guess is that he needs a very good summer this year for an agreement to be reached. As John Morris rightly has said, at this stage Smith's financial requests don't match the club's valuation of the player. While a certain section of 'supporters' will see it as a lack of ambition, we cannot be held to ransom by players and live beyond our means as a consequence. Too many counties have gone down this route in recent years and it has come back to bite them big time.

While I'm not going to claim trophies await Derbyshire in 2011, there is enough talent in the young squad to be competitive and push for decent placings. We now have the right skipper in place and await news of our overseas star, the final piece of the jigsaw according to John Morris.

I'm convinced we don't have the money for a massive international name, so anyone with expectations of seeing a Kallis, Ponting or Vettori at the county may as well start to moan now. For me, the hunt will be on for a player who is perhaps on the next tier down yet still has much to offer. I came across this in a recent Yorkshire Post and I would be far from disheartened, merely as an example, to see this chap at the County Ground next summer:

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/cricket/Yorkshire-stick-to-homegrown-policy.6556208.jp

 If we could get a man with a first-class average of 50 who has two Test double centuries to his name I would be thrilled. To have averaged around or over 100 in each of his last three seasons as a league professional suggests a level of commitment ideal for the job, while 2,000 runs in a league season is extraordinary by any standards.

Wasim Jaffer currently averages 91 this winter in India, confirming him as a player eminently worthy of consideration. He may have rejected Glamorgan, but travelling from a West Yorkshire home to Derby wouldn't be a massive trip. I would also like to think that we could beat the money on offer from a Huddersfield League contract too, but his record is such that other counties could be interested and we could be priced out of a deal.

Jaffer will not be the only one of that calibre available, but is used as an example of what might be possible. Given he has captained Mumbai for two years or so and has not yet been on the losing side he has a lot to offer. As with Eddie Barlow, it seems strange that a man with such a good record (he also averages mid-forties in the one day game) has reached the age of 32 without a county opportunity. Many worse players have been recruited in recent years. We've had one or two at Derbyshire...

The added bonus would be that Jaffer is out of the international reckoning in India and would thus be available for a full season. Being equally adept at all forms of the game, I would see him as a sound, potentially affordable signing. It might even attract some of the local ethnic population, a demographic not especially well represented in the club membership as things stand.

As I said, there are others out there though, so we'll wait and see who John Morris comes up with.

Sutton the new skipper

As suggested should be the case in this blog recently, Luke Sutton has been named the new Derbyshire captain.

More on this welcome news later.

Luke Sutton

So Luke Sutton is back. As far as I’m concerned, that is very good business by John Morris and I would like to think that the majority of Derbyshire fans will agree with me. Sutton is an excellent gloveman but is also a stabilising influence in the middle order in whatever position John Morris deems appropriate.


In his first time with us he batted in most positions in the order, making a good fist of the openers job on occasion. That is not where I would see him now, as it is asking a lot of a wicket-keeper to concentrate for hours in the field then do the same when batting, with no opportunity to relax.

For me, Sutton is the number seven I alluded to last week, a man who can help an innings to recover from a wobble and nurse the tail towards a competitive total. I liked what he had to say in the Derby Telegraph this morning and I am sure that his competitive attitude will rub off on his colleagues. Similarly, his experience will be invaluable in a team that is fairly short of it. As the first step in what will be a winter of team rebuilding, this one gets a thumbs up from me.

That Telegraph article can be seen at:

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/sport/county-skipper-Sutton-set-return-Derbyshire/article-2607767-detail/article.html

There were other candidates in the frame, of course. Steve Adshead has proved himself a good man behind the stumps during his extended trial, without scoring the runs that were required to become the front runner. As I wrote last week, a wicket-keeper today really has to supply a minimum of 500 Championship runs, as James Pipe did, to cement a place in the side, as well as contributing in one-day games. For all the fact that he has been latterly overlooked in favour of Gareth Cross at Lancashire, Sutton averages over 30 in the T20, suggesting he is no mug at the shorter game. While he is not known as a hitter, his running between the wickets is up there with Dean Jones and Garry Park as the best I’ve seen from a Derbyshire player. We have lacked someone with a bit of nous in the latter stages of an innings and Sutton should help in that regard.

I never thought Tim Ambrose a likely candidate for us, as his salary demands would have been an issue. Cricketers of international experience don’t come cheap and Ambrose’s batting over the past year or two has shown signs of decline. His first-class average is only three runs higher than Sutton and is five runs less in T20. Nor is his glovework as good as it might be, which was, of course, why he lost his England place. Put it another way, if we could not match Graham Wagg’s demands, how could we match those of a man with reasonable international experience?

Joel Pope from Leicestershire is as inexperienced as Tom Poynton and, promising as he is, the role is too important for us to take a gamble. We saw with Lee Goddard that prolific scores in Second XI cricket don’t necessarily translate to success in the first-class game.

Niall O’Brien? He and Sutton were my favourites, but it is still not confirmed that he is leaving Northamptonshire. His Irish commitments mean he misses more than a few matches, which would legislate against him. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that someone might engage him as a punishing top order batsman who offered cover behind the stumps, but that would depend on the availability of other targets. The early signs are that a number of players may be looking for deals this winter, so I doubt John Morris would make any hasty moves, unless he has a specific player in mind.

Which he obviously did with Luke Sutton, and is where I came in. I don’t subscribe to one view, expressed below, that we have signed a man who will now ‘coast to retirement.’ He’s not that sort of player and I like the fact that on the club site he talks about helping young players to come to terms with the demands of the first-class game. He will challenge them and will continue to push himself to maintain the high standard that he has met in his career.

While the player has signed a two-year contract, he talks about having ‘at least three’ good years left. That timescale would enable Tom Poynton to work with him and perhaps ultimately replace him as first choice.

A good, solid signing. A few more like that and there will be no complaints from me. The bottom line, as Brian Clough used to say, is whether he is better than the guy he replaces.

He is, so that's one problem sorted.