Former Lions player Nono Pongolo advocates for more diverse contract structures in domestic cricket to help provincial players like himself manage financial uncertainty and plan for the future. Picture: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
If you’re a contracted Proteas player with Cricket South Africa (CSA), life is generally pretty good, but take a step down from the national level and it’s not quite the same.
For players like Nono Pongolo, who has played 170 games across First Class, List A, and T20 cricket in South Africa, it’s difficult to plan their financial futures.
Pongolo, in the twilight of his playing career at 36, is one of many provincial cricketers in South Africa who have one-year contracts.
It means for any cricketer not lucky enough to be on the Proteas radar, they may not know what the future holds in 12 months. That makes buying a house or making any kind of financial commitments much more challenging.
“For me, only when I was at North West did I ever have a two-year deal. It was tough because at the time the contracting period used to be around December-January; it's changed now to later in the season,” Pongolo told SportsBoom.co.za.
“It was tough from a personal point of view. I mean, looking after yourself, your life, it's very hard because you can't make plans. I mean, I come from the Western Cape, so you're basically going to spend a bit of time in rentals and making sure that you don't overcommit yourself because your life could change.”
Pongolo, who made his first-class debut back in 2014, explains that he has had to be thrifty with his spending throughout the years.
“I’ve been lucky enough because I’m not someone who spends like crazy. So, my lifestyle was not an issue off the field to have dealt with those things. You could have sudden changes in one's life when a contract is taken away. So, that's the difficulty. It affects a lot of players, considering that you could lose your contract.”