Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Joe Sayers celebrates reaching a half-century for Yorkshire in 2009.
Joe Sayers has always had a keen eye for numbers. A man who now works in the city, he was a left-handed opening batter who just loved to go big when he got the opportunity in a Yorkshire shirt.
A popular homegrown player whose professional career at Headingley lasted just over a decade, he retired at the start of 2014 to pursue a different path in London and now works as a managing director for credit sales at Stifel Nicolaus Financial Corporation.
We caught up with Sayers, now 42, recently to chat about his life in, and after, cricket.
During his career, Sayers totalled 11 centuries in 5,457 runs across 108 first-class appearances. Nine of those came in a White Rose shirt.
Interestingly, a sign of his quality and powers of concentration, the Leeds-born star generally kicked on having reached the three-figure mark. Of his 11 first-class centuries, nine of them topped 120 and three were 150 plus scores.
“I wasn’t actually aware of that stat,” he chuckles. “But it’s certainly good to know.
“I just loved batting.
“It wasn’t necessarily about the numbers, more the role I was performing for the team, and the time I could spend out in the middle enjoying batting and the strategy and the tactics of the match as a whole.”
Sayers scored centuries against some excellent county attacks. His career best 187 in a draw against Kent at Canterbury in June 2007 saw him navigate internationals Yasir Arafat, Andrew Hall, Ryan McLaren and James Tredwell, for example.
Picture courtesy of Joe Sayers. Joe is currently working in London as a managing director for credit sales at Stifel Nicolaus Financial Corporation.
He scored a 173 at Edgbaston two years later against a Warwickshire attack led by Chris Woakes.
Sayers continued: “I remember the hundred I got against Durham at Headingley (149 not out, April 2007), they had Harmison, Onions, Ottis Gibson and Callum Thorp in their attack.
“Being able to play a role in that game, as a key part of the strategy of winning for Yorkshire, that was really fulfilling for me.
“I guess the fact I didn’t realise that stat about getting in and going big tells a story. For me, it was about one ball at a time and doing the best I could each ball, rather than a particular number against my name.”
Sayers played his last first-class match in June 2013, a County Championship draw against Surrey at Headingley. He played his last match for Yorkshire a month later against Lancashire in a Roses T20 clash at Emirates Old Trafford.
His retirement was then announced at the start of 2014.
“It’s gone well since, thanks, really well,” he continued. “I’m working in the city and living in Surrey.
“Initially, the move took me to Canary Wharf because that was part of the driver for the timing of the retirement decision.
“I was approached by an American bank, Citigroup, who were looking to recruit special forces, military professionals and professional sports people into their financial markets business.
Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Joe Sayers is awarded his first-team Yorkshiore cap by Anthony McGrath in 2007.
“And I was approached with the opportunity of a bit of a fast-track training programme.
“Having been to Uni, having been to Oxford and got my degree, and then turned full-time professional after that, I always knew I’d want to do something and be ambitious about my career after cricket.
“Although the timing of that approach from Citigroup was perhaps on the earlier side of the period in which I was thinking about making a shift, I also saw appeal in starting a new chapter before I turned 30. I was 29 at the time.
“Rather than getting into my mid-thirties and other industries perhaps not offering the same amount of opportunity that they could to somebody below the age of 30, I decided the time was right.
“I’d been on a Lions tour a couple of years previously and had that push towards international cricket at senior level. So I think it surprised a few people. But, as I say, the timing was right.”
A product of the Yorkshire age-groups and the Academy, he made his first-class debut for Oxford University and first played senior cricket for Yorkshire in 2003. He went on to play for the England Under 19s and the Lions.
Of his post-cricket career, he went on: “I got straight into it really and moved the family down to Surrey in September of the following year, so 2015.
“I worked at Citigroup on the trading floor there up until 2020.
“I was then offered the chance to build a business at Royal Bank of Canada, again in London. That was in the same market, and we built the business for five years.
Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Joe Sayers in action for Yorkshire prior to an early retirement to work in the city.
“Then, just over a year ago, I was approached by Stifel Nicolaus, which is a brokerage in the same market, and made that move over to them. I’m still in that role today.”
Sayers has had choices throughout his life. As a youngster, he was a talented footballer.
He said: “Football and cricket was my sporting upbringing, and football went as far as Bradford City’s youth team and signing a youth contract there.
“Then my academic life obviously got to the stage of GCSEs and A-levels, and football didn’t provide a path to be able to do both. Cricket did.
“So, around about the age of 14 or 15, I decided to pursue the cricket path.
“By that stage, I was playing in the Bunbury Festival and captaining the England youth team, etc. So there was enough confidence there to be able to proceed with that.
“As the son of two retired teachers, and the brother of another teacher, academic life was a big part of my upbringing.
“I had the ambition to go to Oxford or Cambridge and get a good degree and follow that path and play varsity cricket and all the rest of it.
“Cricket offered that opportunity, thankfully.”
Picture by Vaughn Ridley/SWPix.com. Joe Sayers and Steve Patterson at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi during the 2008 Yorkshire pre-season tour.
Sayers does not play any more but does coach at his local club in Surrey, Esher. They are in the Surrey Premier League: “It’s a decent standard,” he says.
“I’ve actually started to build a mental fitness coaching business as well. It’s called Mentra.
“I’m coaching young people from the age of 10 to 18 or 19 really, on kind of a proactive approach to the mental tools needed to deal with performance pressures, whether that’s in cricket or tennis or the exam hall or on the drama stage or whatever it might be.
“So that leads me into quite a few cricket nets and cricket teams.”
Since retirement, Sayers has been back to Headingley for Test Matches and has watched Yorkshire play at Guildford, for example. He saw Ben Stokes play that magical Ashes innings in 2019.
“I try to stay in touch wherever possible,” he said.
“I’m a Yorkshire member this year.
“The guys have very kindly arranged memberships for ex-players, so I want to make the most of that and be up to reconnect with some guys I haven’t seen for a long time.
“Obviously I played with Lythy, who is still going strong, Mags is there and Gav Hamilton from the early days. It would be great to see them all.”
Picture by Ben Duffy/SWPix.com. Joe Sayers models Yorkshire’s new 2006 one-day shirt.
And asked to recall his best memories at Headingley, Sayers added: “Joining the Academy really stands out and being around a team of stars, really.
“Pre-season nets were brilliant, you know, with Silverwood, Hutchinson, Sidebottom, White, Gough and Hoggard all running in.
“That was quite the apprenticeship.
“Another one was my debut against Gloucestershire in the 45-over game at Headingley in 2003 (he made 62 in a narrow defeat).
“Jonty Rhodes was buzzing around the field for Gloucester, and it was one of Jack Russell’s last games before retirement from what I can remember. That was pretty special.
“Then, obviously, that period around 2008-2010 when I got on a roll, made some big hundreds, played for the Lions against Australia at Canterbury in between the fourth and fifth Ashes Tests that year and toured South Africa in the winter.
“They’re memories at two ends of my career, really, but they’re very fond ones.”
