As five teams bid for his signature in Thursday’s Hundred auction, the Sussex all-rounder James Coles could barely watch.
“I was sat in my flat with all the lights off, blinds pulled, headphones on, just watching,” he tells Telegraph Sport. “I was a bit nervy at the start because it took a while for someone to put their paddle up. I thought I was going unsold.
“But then it all seemed to happen quickly… It was surreal, quite overwhelming as it started getting higher and then I couldn’t watch it… I got a bit emotional and started crying at one point. I’ve had to rewatch it to let it sink in.”
Coles was eventually sold to Lord’s-based London Spirit for an eye-watering £390,000, making an uncapped 21-year-old the most valuable player in a star-studded auction and the fourth-highest paid in the tournament, behind Harry Brook, Jofra Archer and Phil Salt.
“I’m chuffed, I don’t really know how to put it in words, but it’s nuts,” he says. Afterwards, he took himself up to Devil’s Dyke to play golf with some friends and calm down. His phone was “going berserk”, so he turned it off. “The messages are still coming,” he smiles, around 24 hours after the gavel came down.
It was expected that Coles would fetch a handsome fee, but perhaps not this lofty. Andy Flower, Spirit’s coach, made him their No 1 target, because of his age – he has essentially joined on a three-year basis – and versatility. He can bat anywhere in the top six, while his rapidly-improving left-arm spin is useful in different phases of the innings. The fee, according to Flower, was “a little above what we wanted to pay, but we wanted him”.
Coles has had an excellent winter in South Africa’s SA20, where he earned high praise from his hero Kevin Pietersen on social media, then had a “surreal” meeting with AB de Villiers, “who complimented me, which was a crazy moment”. From there, he was the standout player on the truncated England Lions tour to Abu Dhabi.
After discussion with his agent, his father and England at the end of the summer, it was decided that he should focus on franchise cricket this winter, and it has paid off. Now he will have to get used to expectation. “It’s inevitable that it’s going to be a slightly different vibe, I will be seen as more of a threat,” he says.
Lord’s is a neat fit for Coles. His father, Jon, an opening bowler for Buckinghamshire, played more than 100 matches for MCC. “He was a playing member, been on a lot of tours and managed a few,” smiles Coles. “I’m sure he’s over the moon, as I am.”
James himself is on the long waiting list for MCC, under instruction from his father, who played once at Lord’s for MCC Home Counties.
Jon, says James, is a “purist”. Among the many positive things Flower said about Coles Jr was that his success in first-class cricket underpinned his short-form excellence. In August 2020, at the age of 16 years and 157 days, he became the youngest first-class debutant in Sussex’s long history.
He turns 22 on the eve of the looming season, but is already a veteran of 50 first-class matches who is part of Sussex’s leadership group. Last year, batting No 4 in Division One, he scored four centuries and took 20 wickets. He appears a Test cricketer in waiting, and is clear that that is his ultimate ambition, for all the acceleration in his white-ball progress. A Test call could come as a pure batsman, or as a Moeen Ali-style all-rounder.
“That’s the absolute pinnacle,” he says. “That’s the thing Dad and everyone else I know through cricket has said: ‘I hope to see you play a Test at Lord’s at some point.’ That’s what I have grown up thinking. That’s the end goal.
“Growing up, my first few years playing for Sussex, I didn’t rate myself as a white-ball cricketer at all. I have always found four-day cricket comes more naturally. The white-ball stuff I’ve worked very hard at and it’s starting to work out.”