T20 Max Not Just For Players

Kendel Fleming | A Path of his Own

If you were selecting a batter based on these grade cricket statistics, which following player would you select first?

Player A – 187 innings, 5645 runs @ 34.63 | 7 centuries, 30 half centuries, high score of 195 not out

Player B – 203 innings, 6131 runs @ 34.84 | 10 centuries, 33 half centuries, high score of 181

So who are these players? Player A is Marnus Labuschagne, Player B is Kendel Fleming.

Now the above statistics are not to say Kendel could be the number one ranked Test batter, but they do highlight his quality and ability as a player. With the willow, he is dynamic, powerful and as good a player of spin bowling as anyone. However, there is so much more to Kendel Fleming than crunching cover drives during this year's KFC T20 Max competition.

Kendel’s cricketing journey could have gone the professional route, and in a way it still has. Just not quite as you would expect.

Born in Japan, Kendel’s family relocated to the Gold Coast when he was just six years old. A few years later, he began boarding at Brisbane Grammar School. An unfamiliar environment in an unfamiliar city, Kendel found an ally in the one person he knew at the school, a fellow cricketer he opened the batting with for the QLD U/12s, Matt Renshaw.

Kendel played a few games at Toombul with Matt, before heading to the western side of Buckland Road, Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club. Jon Hopes, his school teacher at Brisbane Grammar and the Chairman of Selectors at Norths, saw something special.

After making his way through Fourth Grade and Third Grade, Kendel began the 2012/13 season as a naturally gifted 16-year-old schoolkid, still not having solidified his place in any of the top grades. The previous season, he averaged less than 10 with the bat, but made his First Grade debut in a One Day game. “Late cut, Jason Floros, duck” is all he could recall about the match.

A string of consistent Second Grade scores of 40 or more were enough to show Jon Hopes he was good enough to handle men’s cricket, and in just his fourth game of First Grade cricket, Kendel blasted 140 off 157 balls against a bowling attack which included Jack Wildermuth and Andrew Gode.  He finished off his first full season in the top grade with a knock of 139 off 135 against grade cricket stalwarts Josh Henderson and Michael Brammer as well as future Bulls star Mark Steketee. In the following seasons, he’s gone on to become one of the premier batters and leaders in Queensland Premier Cricket, while he concedes that playing professionally has always rightfully eluded him.  

Instead, Kendel wears many hats. During the day, he is a Senior Financial Analyst at Vincents, one of the top ranked professional services firms in the country. Outside of work hours (or at least he tells the boss that), he operates a business as the founder of player management company, Stepback Management.

Kendel’s list of players includes Australia A captain Nathan McSweeney, Big Bash sensations Josh Brown and Paddy Dooley, Queensland players Steve McGiffin, Connor Sully and Aryan Jain, female domestic players Josie Dooley, Meagan Dixon and Annie Wikman, as well as a number of up and coming prospects in New Zealand, Japan and Australia.

Remarkably, McSweeney, Dooley and Brown have all become household names due to their success in the Big Bash, while Jain and McGiffin also featured for Queensland at the end of the List A and Sheffield Shield season.

But how do you even begin your own player management business?

“It’s something I’d always been interested in, particularly with an unrelated sport, basketball, but the idea for it in cricket first came about playing for Norths in 2019, when Nathan McSweeney’s grandad Terry actually asked me if it was something I’d be interested in. I laughed it off but thought about it more during the week and throughout the rest of the season.”

“What piqued my interest was that one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a captain is relating to different players and figuring out what it is that makes them tick. That's part of being an agent or a manager as well. You're on the journey with a group of unique players and riding the ups and downs with them, while trying to get the best out of, and for, the players.”

Kendel attributes a lot of his players’ success to the strength of QLD Premier Cricket.  “It’s really satisfying to see players like Paddy and Browny finally get an opportunity at the next level through putting up dominant performances in grade cricket across a number of years.  Their success at BBL-level wasn’t a surprise to me and affirms my belief that we play in one of the strongest amateur cricket competitions in the world.”

Kendel’s stable of players are all organic connections, from schoolmates, to club mates and grade cricket rivals which he has grown a connection with over years of hard fought matches. He knows his people, and they know him.

Player managers are registered with the Australian Cricket Association, and all meet quarterly for a conference. Additionally, the ACA provides regular updates, alerts and runs frequent education sessions.

The ACA is not the only national cricket body Kendel works closely with. He is embedded in the Japan Cricket Association, representing them as captain of the national team, having previously held the role of Assistant Coach at the U/19 World Cup. The first Japanese cricketer to ever score an international century, Kendel recently led the side into the next stage of World Cup Qualifiers. Japan will play in the East Asia Pacific Regional Finals, where the winner will play in the 2024 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies and USA.

Kendel’s cricketing path could have been very different, and potentially on the other side of the fence to where he is now, something which he has no ill feeling towards. “I’m really happy with what I currently do now. I think the two batters they gave Rookie Contracts to from my age group were Sam Heazlett and Matt Renshaw. Two guys that had played for Australia by the time they were 21. I think they made the right choice!” he said.

His path has led him to captain his country of birth, manage some of the best talent in the country, and work in one of the biggest professional services firms in the country, all at once.