Cricketers' Form Reflected in Ebay Prices

Michael Vaughan is hottest, Andy Flintoff is simmering away and Ashley Giles's burgeoning reputation is paying dividends. But no one wants Steve Harmison.

The devil finds work for idle hands, so yesterday found me trawling ebay, looking at the pages of cricket memorabilia and wondering whether the movement of items was a fair reflection on current performance.

Well, up to a point. Someone - clearly only one person - was trying to get £100 for a bat signed by Vaughan, and half that for an England shirt similarly autographed. The asking price for a Flintoff shirt was £43 and a signed picture of the King of Spain in his England practice togs was a massive tenner. You couldn't have given that away a few weeks ago.

But Harmy? One item: "Stunning high quality photo signed by One of The World [sic] Leading Fast Bowlers", 12 x 8, for an asking price of £9.99 and, with only two days 10 hours and 19 minutes of bidding left at the time of writing, not even a sniff of a bid. Cheap at half the price too: you could get an Andrew Strauss, Simon Jones or Robert Key from the same seller for only three quid less.

One can see why players are getting increasingly reluctant to put their names to bits of paper, photos, bats, balls, stumps, clothing or anything. There has always been a market for genuine memorabilia, even down to the cigarette cards with the potted biography on the back; I have just rummaged in my desk drawer and found a complete set of Players' Cricketers 1934, from Les Ames to Bill Woodfull, tucked away in an old Kensitas packet.

Some private collections are vast and, were they ever sold, would fetch many thousands of pounds. And long has been the tradition, late into the sozzled evening at large dinners, of someone flashing the cash and purchasing an item at auction, usually at a greatly inflated price that in the hungover day after is seen as an expensive aberration.

To compound the mistake, the stuff is occasionally of doubtful authenticity. All counties, for instance, once seemed to have a master forger who could fill in any names missing from the masses of bats signed for a county beneficiary. And an insurance broker once paid £6,000 for a short-sleeved shirt worn by Brian Lara during his first world-record-breaking innings in Antigua only to find that he had batted the entire innings in long sleeves.

But the internet has altered all that, hustling in an age where items are collected and sold not out of interest but strictly as a money-making procedure. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but sportsmen and women, backed by agents, are protective of their image rights and cricketers, while mindful of the things that once stimulated their progress into the game - as children many would have queued patiently for the autographs of their own heroes - also are starting to question why others should profit from their goodwill.

One bat on the net, for example, autographed by the entire 1999 England squad and listed at £150, actually uses the fact that it was "acquired by Nasser Hussain" as a selling point, a sort of hallmark of probity. You can bet Nasser would be delighted to know his efforts were put to such use.

The Australians have got it right in this regard. Do not expect mass signing sessions during the Champions Trophy next month or the Ashes series next year.

It is down to marketing not indifference, mostly anyway. Their image rights are carefully controlled and they profit greatly from Cricket Australia's deals with two companies that market what they call "memorabilia" or "collectables" but which in reality is merchandising. Where Australia goes, you can bet England will follow.

I was disconcerted to find five items - an England batting helmet, and Test caps from India, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies - placed for auction on ebay by the former Dutch international and Somerset seam bowler Roland Lefebvre. It is not unusual for extremely collectable items to be auctioned but they are generally worth a lot of money. What price memories, though? Lefebvre's items will bring him a couple of hundred pounds at most.

I like to think that all the things I have kept from my own career - blazers, sweaters, ties and caps (including Max Walker's baggy green and a Zimbabwe cap given to me by Duncan Fletcher, a kind act as he had remembered a request made some years earlier and had been unable to respond at the time) - will be passed down to my children. Then I guess they can do what they like with them - flog them on ebay probably.

Steve Harmison remains unwanted by the way, so get in quickly.