James Coles on England, Sussex and a £390,000 fee at auction: 'I know there will be a target on my back'

The uncapped Sussex batter commanded an eye-watering fee at The Hundred auction Warren Little/Getty Images Share articleThe Athletic has launched a Cricket WhatsApp Channel. Click here to join. James Coles is adamant. “I always want to play for Sussex,” he says. “As long as the cricket carries on being this good there’s no doubt I’ll stay. I love it here and we’re in a great spot.” It is a reassuring answer for Sussex supporters to a pertinent question over the future of one of the most exciting and sought-after emerging talents in English cricket. The decision of the ECB to punish the county heavily for the financial mismanagement that led to a loss of £1.3million ($1.8m) in the last financial year — docking them 12 County Championship points alongside other measures — has left a dark cloud hanging over Hove despite the brightest of starts to the season. Coach Paul Farbrace has already announced he will step down at the end of the year. The break-up of one of the best young sides in the country at the end of this campaign looks inevitable. But Coles, perhaps the brightest Sussex star, is going nowhere. “I just can’t see myself leaving unless things really change,” Coles tells The Athletic. “We’ve had all the talks about what the situation means to us as players and now we’re laser-focused on doing as well as we can as a side, which should help with the financial situation. “I always like the idea of leaving a legacy wherever I play and want to do so at the place where I became the county’s youngest player. I love living in Hove, I’ve got a lot of friends in the area and my parents come down regularly and call it home now too. I’ll be staying as long as I can.” But there is something that will take Coles away from Hove regularly — the England recognition that is sure to come his way, perhaps as early as this summer. Coles, 22, has been highly regarded within cricket ever since he became Sussex’s youngest ever first-class debutant six years ago, at the age of 16 years and 157 days, after arriving at Hove as part of a development partnership with Oxfordshire. But his name was brought to a much wider audience earlier this year when he was bought in The Hundred auction by London Spirit for a jaw-dropping £390,000, an enormous amount for a right-handed batter and left-arm spinner who is yet to play for his country. Now Coles has gone some way to quashing any fears that the price tag and extra attention will adversely affect his game with two stylish contributions against Yorkshire at Headingley, making 47 and, on Monday, 53 as Sussex added a draw to their two opening victories. Coles also made a notable contribution with the ball, taking three second-innings wickets while bowling 30 overs. Watching on was one of the best there is in former England captain and record Test run-scorer Joe Root, playing his first game of the season. He will have been impressed with what he witnessed first-hand. So who is Coles and why is he now so highly regarded in both red and white-ball cricket that he has become both an England Test candidate and a much sought-after franchise player? The Athletic spoke to Coles and those closest to him to find out. “We’re absolutely awful watchers,” says Jon Coles from his seat in the crowd, this time at Headingley, as he and his wife, Julie, watch their son play. “But this has been a good match to watch. It was nice for James to get to 50 although he feels he’s missed out. It can’t be too bad to feel like that when you score 100 runs in the game. And it was good for him to bowl to Joe Root. He will learn from that. “But we get so nervous. I don’t think there’s anything more stressful in life than watching your son play professionally. I was having a word with Jack Carson’s (the Sussex spinner) dad and he felt exactly the same way. “When a batter goes out there he can make one mistake and he’s gone. As a spin bowler, the first over can go out of the ground. But we concluded the boys generally do all right and cope with it all a lot better than we do.” Coles Snr has not only been instrumental in his son’s development, but remains an important influence in his career, advising on all the big decisions alongside trusted agent Jonny Hughes. Like the one that ensured he was watching his son playing at Headingley rather than somewhere much warmer and more frenetic. “James loves red-ball cricket and made the conscious decision not to go in the IPL auction so he could play these six games of Championship cricket for Sussex at the start of the season,” says Jon. “He would have had to put himself forward in December when he was pretty much unknown so he may not have been picked up. “But if he had put his name on the list I’m pretty sure he would have been signed up as an injury replacement. I just think this is the right decision at his age because I’m not sure sitting around at the IPL would have been good for him at this time of his career. And he started to find his touch in this game against Yorkshire. The IPL is a conversation for next year depending on how things go.” Farbrace had no doubts about Coles’ quality as soon as he became Sussex coach ahead of the 2023 season. “I didn’t know him at all and he got a hundred in a second-team game at Hove at the end of April against Kent. Tawanda Muyeye (the Kent batter) also got a century and the two of them were so far ahead of everybody else on the field. So we put Colesey in the first team the following week and he’s been there ever since. “He’s very stylish, he’s got all the shots, he’s very elegant in the way he plays and there’s nothing he can’t do. He’s a timer of the ball, but when he needs sheer power he’s got that as well. He really is a modern cricketer who has the ability to score all around the pitch — but he’s got a good solid technique. “Some players score quickly because they have the attitude of getting their runs before the bowler gets them out, but James can be happy to bat half an hour without scoring because he backs his technique, knows where his off stump is, and is a very good judge of line and length. You watch him and think: ‘This bloke’s got so much time’.” Coles is a consistent scorer at first-class level and made 1,032 First Division Championship runs last year. But it was the shrewd decision to try his luck in the South African T20 league with Sunrisers Eastern Cape last winter, instead of further England Lions recognition, that proved pivotal to his rise. “I went to the T10 in Abu Dhabi but didn’t do well and, frankly, left there feeling out of my depth,” says Coles. “So I knew I had to work hard before I got to South Africa. “When I got there the Sunrisers team was immense. I watched them in the nets thinking: ‘Jeez, these guys are proper. I need to buck my ideas up or I might not get a game’. Luckily Adrian Birrell (the Sunrisers’ coach) gave me heaps of confidence and it went from there.” Coles’ good friend and Sussex team-mate Carson tells an illuminating story about a conversation the pair had on the phone during those early days in South Africa when Coles had yet to break into the Sunrisers side. “I know him well but that chat really opened my eyes,” Carson tells The Athletic. “James wasn’t in the team at first so I reached out to him to make sure he was okay. He said straightaway: ‘I can’t believe I’m not in this team.’ “So I looked at the Sunrisers and they’ve got Jonny Bairstow, Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, Tristan Stubbs and lots more. It was a star-studded team but James felt he should be in it. When he did get in, he was player of the match in his first game. “That resonated with me. It’s not arrogance or anything like that. But he’s got a lot of self-confidence. It was inspiring to see someone continue his trajectory so quickly and go about it in the right way.” The SA20 is one of the better franchise tournaments, so the youngster’s achievements were eye-catching. Coles made 61 off 34 balls in that first match and finished the tournament with 152 runs at an average of 38 and, more impressively, a strike-rate of 170.79 as Sunrisers won the title. “He’s been level-headed about where best to further his career and, always, it’s been cricket decisions over financial ones,” says Jon. “For anyone in life, that’s not always easy because you never know what’s round the corner. But everything is about the long-term and, so far, so good. Going to South Africa was certainly a good decision.” As was, in hindsight, Coles’ time in the T10 tournament even though he felt out of his depth. It was there that he played under Andy Flower and made such an impression that the former England coach splashed out that huge sum to take him to London Spirit for The Hundred this summer. It was the word Flower used when explaining the Spirit’s decision to devote so much of their budget on the talented youngster that caught the eye. He called Coles “curious”. “I’ve always been good at listening to people and processing the information they give me without saying too much,” says Coles. “But as I’ve got older and more confident I’ve started asking more questions to people like Andy Flower, who is one of the best there is. “I would say I’m curious especially when I’m in an environment where I’m playing with some of the world’s best. I’d be a fool not to ask questions.” Then, after success in South Africa, came that Hundred auction. Coles watched it alone in his flat at Hove, at first nervously when it took a while for his lot to gain attention — but then emotionally as five clubs entered a bidding war which ended with London Spirit on top. Jon was watching on TV as the sum his son was going to earn went up and up. “I thought: ‘Gosh’, to put it politely,” says Jon, a good club bowler and a regular tourist with MCC in his playing days, and now often to be found at ‘Dexter’s Terrace’ — the homely and charming family viewing area at Hove where The Athletic was invited to watch Sussex’s opening home victory against Warwickshire. “It was just surreal. And it was so nice that a number of teams were bidding. I think others would have gone for him, too, if they had got their hands up before he burst their budgets. There was so much genuine interest, which was lovely.” The size of the prize quickly sunk in. “The bidding started stalling at £150,000 and I said to him afterwards: ‘Did you think that would be it?’,” says Farbrace. “And he said: ‘No, I was always hoping for a bit more than that’. Then it got to £390,000 and he was in floods of tears because he realised what a big amount of money that was.” Coles looks back on the momentous event with perspective. “My life hasn’t changed,” he smiles. “But being able to call Lord’s home is really exciting. “I’m not sure what I feel about what I’m earning being in the public domain. That’s a bit alien, but that’s how it is. It was a pretty cool experience. Certainly it was cool by the end! But there’s been no splashing out on a new car or anything. I haven’t got the money yet! “Ultimately everybody knows me now. In pre-season everyone was congratulating me, but I know there will be a target on my back. I do think I’ve been on the back burner in terms of the media before now, but I’m sure that’s going to change. “I’ve just been quietly cracking on and trying to get my fundamentals right so now I’m in a place where hopefully I can deal with the pressure. I don’t want to count my chickens but I think I’ve got enough experience behind me so I’m ready for what’s to come.” That looks sure to be international cricket. “There are people who love practising but, when it comes to the games, it’s tough for them. Then there are people who are fine playing in front of 200 people but struggle when there are 30,000 watching them,” says Farbrace. “Colesey is one who thrives on the big stage. He loves the big occasion. “Not to show off and do things that get him noticed. It just turns him on and he gets excited about the big game. He wants to play against the best players and against the best teams in the best stadiums, and when you’ve got that attitude and mindset, you’re already a long way down the route of playing international cricket. “He wants to be under the high ball when the opposition need four to win and he wants to bowl the last or first over. He wants to be there at the end of the innings and that’s the temperament that sets him apart from others.” That call may even come this summer if England do what they did during the Ashes, when they picked Will Jacks, and select a batter who bowls spin as a second suit as their slow-bowling option for the Test series against New Zealand in June. The new Moeen Ali perhaps? “That would be the dream,” says Coles. “I definitely need to do more with my bowling. I’ve sat down and thought about it and I know my way into the England side could be by adding value with the ball. Red-ball bowling could enable me to play Test cricket so I’m trying hard to spend time on my bowling.” He has used his time wisely up to now and, with the help of those around him, will continue to plot the right route to where he wants to go. “I don’t worry about him as a person now,” adds Jon. “I listen to him talking to the likes of Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton on their podcast and he comes across so well. I wouldn’t be able to do that! I hope he just stays level-headed and gets to be a 22-year-old at times as well. “His challenges will be when form eludes him and if injury strikes because he wouldn’t be very good sitting on the sidelines — that I do know. Hopefully he’ll avoid those things and keep chugging along.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms