jack bannister

50 years of player support
that we can auction online throughout
the year,” said Jason Ratcliffe, the PCA
Assistant Chief Executive.
“We have a lot of past players who
have established successful businesses
but there are also current players
who are developing new skills away
from cricket – barbering, plumbing
and plastering courses for example -
through our Personal Development
programme who can offer services that
would be attractive to bidders.
“We have set ourselves a goal of
raising £250,000 from our 50th
anniversary year to support the
outstanding work that the Benevolent
Fund does in supporting PCA members
and their families in their hour of need.
“The auction is something that all
PCA Members can be involved in and
it crosses the generations from the
pioneers who established the PCA
in 1967 to first year rookies on
county staffs.”
Although the online auction will not
go live until 1 January 2017, we are
already collecting items of memorabilia
and pledges. If you have items or
services that you would like to donate
to support the PCA Benevolent Fund
please contact Ali Prosser at aprosser@
thepca.co.uk
We will also be compiling an online
history of the PCA to complete the
work that Jack Bannister started before
his death earlier this year.
Jack was one of the driving
forces behind the formation of the
PCA when he was still playing for
Warwickshire and he served the
Association as Chairman, Secretary
and President during almost 30 years
of distinguished service.
Bannister was actually elected as the
PCA first Treasurer but he stepped up to
Chairman before the start of the 1968
season after Northamptonshire objected
to their captain Roger Prideaux, who
has been elected as Chairman, being
involved in the new union.
Fred Rumsey, the former Somerset,
Worcestershire and Derbyshire pace
bowler, convened the first meeting of
the PCA which was held in the Daily
Express offices in Fleet Street and was
attended by Jimmy Hill and
Cliff Lloyd of the Professional
Footballers’ Association.
In those days the main concerns
for the PCA were restraint of
trade - players who were contested
registrations had to complete a two
year qualification period before
they could play competitive cricket
for another county– and the
minimum wage.
The PCA played a leading role in
brokering peace between the cricket
establishment and Kerry Packer’s
World Series Cricket in the late 1970s,
a dispute that had split cricket in two.
It was during Richard Bevan’s
time as Chief Executive during the
late 1990s and early 2000s that
the PCA was transformed into the
organisation it is today with the
creation of PCA Management Ltd in
1997, the launch of Team England
Player Partnerships in 1999 and a key
role in the formation of FICA – the
representative body for international
cricketers.
“Slowly and slowly it developed
into something which, when I left the
PCA it in the late eighties, was still on
the brink of something. Richard Bevan
then came and joined and from then on
it just exploded until now. It’s terrific,”
Bannister said.
The growth in revenues has allowed
the PCA to fund a team of six Personal
Development and Welfare Managers,
three of whom recently completed ten
years’ of service, across the country
and to invest more money into the
Jimmy Hill and Cliff
Lloyd meet the PCA
Founding Fathers
24 BtB issue 18 / thepca.co.uk