News

We have been awarded the exclusive licence to manage overseas player recruitment and management for the Second Edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, the professional Twenty20 cricket league. The event is scheduled to take place between the 17th January and 16th February 2013.

The first season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), launched to huge fanfare in February 2012, attracting six franchise teams from across the country who can select players from both domestic and international talent.

Some franchises, however, struggled to make payments to their players and the league has faced criticism from various representative bodies within the sport.

Against this backdrop, Celerity Group has been invited, not only to recruit overseas players for the next season, but also to work closely with the BPL in alliance with the Bangladesh Cricket Board to resolve the issues and deliver a higher level of assurance to players involved.

Allan Reeves, CEO at Celerity Group, said: “Celerity is looking forward to the challenge of ensuring that this tournament attracts players from all over the world, keen to participate in the knowledge that they will be remunerated properly. It is our intention to establish this as a flagship tournament on the cricket calendar.”

Responding to the issues that players have faced following the first BPL, he added: “We want international players to feel confident in their involvement in the BPL, particularly in relation to their financial remuneration, and we will work towards arranging bank and contractual guarantees which can be presented to players and player associations before the next tournament starts. If those guarantees and financial security aren’t demonstrated to a satisfactory level and we can’t categorically state that the measures are in place for all the player’s salaries to be covered in case of defaults by any franchise, then we will make that publically known.”

As well as working with players and their associations, Celerity Group will also provide ‘player packs’ to franchises, arrange contracts, represent players on the ground during the BPL and act in the collective players’ interests.

The teams for the next edition of the BPL were announced on December 20th 2012. Any players interested in taking part in future editions of the BPL should email: bpl@celeritygp.com and request a pre-auction agreement.

Celerity has increased its network size following the acquisition of New Zealand-based Merlin Sports, the rugby agency founded and managed by All-Blacks legend, Craig Dowd.

The new agency, Celerity New Zealand is based in Auckland and will continue to be run under the control of Craig Dowd. Some of New Zealand’s best players and coaches, including Rob Penney, the new director of coaching at Munster, are already represented by the agency.

Craig Dowd commented: “Combining our interests with those of Celerity enables us to grow more quickly and exercise more influence in this highly competitive market. We do already have a strong roster of players, but we are actively looking to add to this as well as home grown talent, we welcome players from the Northern Hemisphere.”

Celerity Group has also announced that it is now active in Ireland following another acquisition deal with Icon Global Sports Management, a rugby specialist agency directed by Daragh Geraghty.

Allan Reeves, Chief Executive at Celerity Group, said: “From the beginning we were determined to establish the Group in the key rugby markets. Within 18 months we have not only made our mark in the UK, we are also now working with experienced rugby specialists in some of the sport’s most influential territories. We are already negotiating further strategic partnerships and acquisitions which we expect to come to fruition in the next few months.”

Celerity Group has announced its acquisition of JPA Worldwide, the rugby-specialist sports agency. The acquisition comes on the eve of Celerity’s first anniversary, and underlines the company’s intention to quickly build expertise across all areas of sports marketing, sponsorship and consultancy. JPA Worldwide, which was formed by Justin Paige following a management buy-out from World in Motion in December 2010, provides Celerity with a wealth of experience managing top-flight rugby and football players. Included on the Celerity roster are Matt Stephens, Tom Croft and Brian O’Driscoll.

Allan Reeves, Chief Executive at Celerity Group, said: “We have made fantastic headway in just 12 months, but the addition of Justin’s team gives Celerity an important edge in the market. We are determined to build sports management expertise that will draw players from across all sport disciplines, and as an established well respected agency specialising primarily in rugby, this is a major development for us.”

Justin Paige commented: “We are delighted to have joined the Celerity Group, and together we will be able to build a formidable rugby-specialist company which will make its mark on the broader sports industry.”

Celerity has announced the appointment of John Byfield as Chairman. Previously executive Chairman of Essentially Group until the company was sold in 2009, John is a well-known figure in the sports industry, having identified and negotiated a wide number of acquisitions in the sector, with highly profitable results.

“I worked with Allan Reeves at Essentially before he established Celerity, and we share a common goal,” Byfield commented. “We are both driven to build a company that offers the best quality advice and guidance to sports men and women, with a clear growth strategy, and a team of the very highest calibre. I am delighted to be involved in the company.”

In the past year, Celerity Group has grown rapidly through acquisition, purchasing Essentially Professional Services from Chime Communications Group and two football representation companies in addition to JPA.