Enabling and constraining migration: the multiscalar management of temporary, skilled, international migration of English professional cricketers

Abstract This article progresses debates about how the process of international migration is operationalized. With a focus on the geographical concept of scale this article explores how individuals, organizations and policies interact to determine the characteristics of a migration flow. Using a case study of the temporary migration of English professional cricketers moving seasonally to Australia, it is revealed that there is a complex nexus of actors and institutions at the micro-, meso- and macro-scales that influence migration and can have contradictory impacts on migratory activity. Drawing on interviews with current and former English professional cricketers and a wide range of intermediaries it is shown how migration can both be enabled and constrained by different individuals and institutions in the home and destination context. The article contends that a multi-scalar approach is vital to more fully understand how migration flows are operationalized. The findings are pertinent to wider academic debates on the enablement, constraint and growing regulation of sports labour migration and skilled migration more broadly.


Introduction
Nearly 25-years ago Bale and Maguire's (1994) pioneering collection on athletic talent migration was published, setting the agenda for sports labour migration. Research on this topic has flourished, reflecting its significance in contemporary global sport. As a specialist subdiscipline, geographies of sport is still emerging (Andrews 2017), but the changes that have occurred in human geography over the last 25 years have resulted in a situation where there is increasing recognition of the potential offered by this sub-disciplinary approach (Koch 2016;Gaffney 2014). Bale and Maguire (1994, 7) acknowledge the value of utilising the core geographical concepts of space and place to underpin studies of sports labour migration. More recently, Wise (2015) has discussed the benefits of a spatial perspective and the contributions it can make to sociological debates, particularly in light of globalization and evolving social processes. Yet, this article will present empirical data to argue that there is further scope to draw upon fundamental geographical principles to contribute a new way of understanding the phenomenon of sports labour migration.

KEYWORDS
Cricket; migration; scale; regulation; geography This article will focus on scale, another concept that is central to geographical research. At its most basic, scale is understood as 'one or more levels of representation, experiences and organization of geographical events and processes' (Smith 2000, 724). While the concept of scale has been used in previous work on sport (e.g. Harris and Wise 2011;Wise 2017), this article will consider how processes of temporary migration are shaped by individuals, institutions and policies at a range of spatial scales. Rather than drawing upon existing geographical writings on sport, qualitative data collected from English professional cricketers who migrate seasonally to Australia is used. Taking a multi-scalar approach will expose how policies and procedures at different scales combine to determine the characteristics of migration. A case study from professional sport enables this article to make two key arguments. First, it will demonstrate how international migration flows are managed and regulated at multiple spatial scales. Second, it will draw on a burgeoning geographical literature on the migration industry to highlight the value of this scholarship to understanding migration in sport.
It is argued that professional cricket migrants are reflective of what are termed (highly-) skilled migrants in geography (Salt 1997;Findlay and Cranston 2015). Central to understanding migration flows of these groups is recognising the impacts of globalization and how changing political, economic, social and cultural conditions have resulted in increasing global flows of people (Smith and King 2012). Skilled workers, regardless of their occupation, are scarce assets (Nolasco 2018) who are in demand and travel the world to ply their trade, progress their careers (Waite and Smith 2017) and seek the best available rewards.
Increasing international flows of skilled workers have resulted in the formalization and commercialization of international migration processes (Cranston et al. 2018). Accompanying this is an increasing appreciation of the individuals, institutions and nations that act to manage migration ( Van Riemsdijk 2012). This suggests there are at least three spatial scales where actions influence migration processes. At the macro-scale, in this case the scale of the nation state, policies regulating immigration have been an ever-present (Geiger and Pécoud 2012). The burgeoning literature on the meso-scale, with a focus on commercially-driven agents and firms, encompasses what is known as the migration industry (Groutsis et al. 2015). To date, these two aspects of migration have been studied independently. To fully understand how migrations are structured and mediated it is necessary to consider the linkages between these scales and how they combine to enable and constrain migration.

Multiscalar migration management
Recently there has been an increasing appreciation that a more holistic view of migration processes is required to understand better the realities of international migration experiences (Harvey et al. 2018). For professional footballers, Elliott (2016) has highlighted, 'a player's decision to migrate should not simply be reduced to a series of intrinsic and largely personal influences. To be truly meaningful, the structural conditions that exist at the player's point of departure and arrival should also be taken into consideration' (p 150). Here Elliott (2016) refers to the potential significance of the interaction between the individual migrant and the structural conditions through which they negotiate their migration, and emphasises how the situation in the home and destination contexts shapes the migration characteristics. Likewise, Lindquist et al. (2012) have recognised how migration research has tended to focus on what motivates a migrant to depart and subsequently what happens upon arrival in the destination. Lindquist et al. (2012, 9) refer to the lack of understanding of the processes that occur between these points as the 'black box in migration research. ' Consequently, there have been calls for studies that investigate the human and nonhuman actors that structure these intervening processes (Lin et al. 2017). It is evident that a gap exists in understandings of sports labour migration and migration studies more broadly. This study will contribute to opening this 'black box' , and in doing so, enhance understandings of the movement mechanism of sports labour migrants and skilled workers (Dolles and Egilsson 2017).
Opening the black box can first be done at the macro-scale. In the home and destination countries, government policy will influence migration flows, alongside policies implemented at larger spatial scales, such as European Union labour migration policy ( Van Riemsdijk 2012). Visa regulations have a significant role in controlling migration, as individual and business motives cannot be met if potential migrants are unable to obtain visas. In recent years, temporary, skilled migration has been viewed positively, with policies encouraging global flows of talent (Khoo et al. 2007). Yet, given the influence that visa regulations and other policies can have on migratory activity, it is important to investigate them explicitly.
The need to consider the policy context of skilled migration is pertinent given the diverse terminology that is used to define this group. From an academic perspective, professional cricket migrants can be understood to be highly-skilled (Salt 1997). In a policy context, there are distinct visa categories for sports people and this impacts upon the conditions and time constraints that are attached to visas. In an Australian context, legislation is in place for athletes using Temporary Activity visas (subclass 408) (Department of Home Affairs 2018a) or Distinguished Talent visas (subclass 858) (Department of Home Affairs 2018b). In a UK context, athletes may be eligible for Tier 2 (sportsperson) visas (UKVI 2018a) or Tier 5 (Temporary Worker-Creative and Sporting) visas (UKVI 2018b). This suggests that in a policy context, professional sport is viewed as a distinct occupation, as opposed to being comparable with other professions, and highlights the importance of understanding the macro-policy context and how this impacts on migration.
The meso-scale influences are significant in the context of sports labour migration. For most professional migrants it is likely that they will be required to negotiate with current and/or future employers when arranging migration. Athletes may have further intermediary structures that influence their international mobility (Purdy et al. 2019). First, the relevant governing bodies in the home and destination countries (Carter 2013). This additional influence is unusual and has only been discussed elsewhere in relation to service occupations, including the healthcare sector, where practice is controlled by professional bodies (Bach 2007;Iredale 2009). Further, research has long acknowledged the role that agents can play in facilitating international migration and there is some evidence of the role that sports-specific agents can play (Elliott and Maguire 2008;Engh and Agergaard 2015) in these processes. There is scope to explore in more detail how sports agents shape migratory activity and the role they play in the migration industry.
The micro-scale is arguably the most significant encompassing the decisions and experiences of individual migrants. Much consideration has been given to processes at this scale (Agergaard 2017), notably on the motives that drive athletic migration. But, there is clear recognition that focusing on this scale alone does not enable adequate understanding of migration processes (Poli 2010); with calls for attention to be given to how the desires of individuals are operationalized in conjunction with regulations at other scales (Dolles and Egilsson 2017).
The scales that have been discussed here reflect what is known as geographical scale (Smith 2000), this is a hierarchical view with the global scale sitting atop (Herod and Wright 2002). This reductionist viewpoint has been critiqued, but by acknowledging that there is potential for fluidity between the scales and disregarding the notion that power is distributed in a top-down manner through the hierarchy ( Van Riemsdijk 2012;Swyngedouw 2004), geographical scale has clear potential as an analytical framework. This hierarchy enables a nuanced approach to thinking about scale, rather than being restricted by economic scales including the regional and global (Marston et al. 2005). Likewise, the use of a multi-scalar approach does not privilege one scale (Leitner and Miller 2007), it instead enables an exploration of the complex interactions between scales.

Context
Under conditions of globalization, and the accompanying processes professionalization and commercialization, cricket has been re-configured in the post-war era (Birley 1999). As a consequence of the professionalization of English cricket, and the recognition of the benefits that can be gained from continuing to play cricket all year round, temporary migration became an attractive option for English cricketers (Waite and Smith 2017). These seasonal migrations, the focus of this research, have post-war origins, since, despite the professional set-up of English domestic cricket in the 20th Century, contracts and financial remuneration were only available to players from 1st April to 30th September each year (Stewart 2012). Cricketers sought international opportunities to supplement their income and make cricket a year-round occupation. Ease of travel meant that early migrations were dominated by flows to South Africa, but the political tensions that arose from Apartheid (Gemmell 2004) and improvements in long-haul travel, meant that since the mid-1970s Australia became an increasingly feasible and popular destination. Maguire (1999) considers these early migrants pioneers of temporary migration from England to Australia. Following these pioneers, this migration flow continued to grow steadily through the 1980s and 1990s because of the opportunity to earn a year-round income from cricket.
The start of the 21st century coincided with the introduction of 12-month contracts for English professional cricketers (King 2011). Consequently, every cricketer became involved in, playing and training in the summer, and training programmes during the winter off-season, which increasingly incorporated a period of playing overseas. With networks having been established and the availability of well-developed and competitive cricket, Australia remains the destination of choice. Importantly, the year-round remuneration from their home employers means that migrants can be self-sufficient without financial support from their host clubs, so more opportunities are now available.

Methods
Fifty-two migrant cricketers who had migrated to Australia (for at least one season) between 1975-present were interviewed. Interviewees were categorised into three time periods based on the migration and professionalization phases outlined above: 5 migrants during the phase 1975-1980; 12 migrants over the phase 1981-2000; 35 migrants from 2001 onwards. Supplementing migrant interviews, 23 further interviews were conducted with migration intermediaries. These interviews comprised of 10 interviews with Directors of Cricket (DoC), managers of contemporary migrant cricketers at County Cricket Clubs. Six interviews were conducted with senior managers from relevant governing bodies and two interviews were conducted with sports agents (who were generic sports-representative agents, opposed to migration-specific agents). Finally, five interviews were conducted with representatives from Australian host cricket leagues. The inclusion of intermediary interviews within the methodology enabled a more rigorous insight into the migration process as opposed to privileging the migrant's interpretation (Carter 2013).
All the interviews were semi-structured and conducted on a one-to-one basis to ensure confidentiality and allow participants to speak openly about their experiences (Harvey 2011). Given the elite nature of the research participants the interviews were conducted using a combination of face-to-face, telephone and email interviews depending upon the preference of the participant. All interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed in full.
To maintain the anonymity of participants, given their high-profile status, participants were given pseudonyms and identifiable achievements have been removed from the data (Burdsey 2010). Participant quotes embedded in this article are contextualised by providing the age (at the time of migration) and playing position of the participant. The data collected from the interviews were analysed manually within NVivo10. Data was organised using initial codes that were defined from the literature review. The analysis process was then advanced by proceeding to analyse simultaneously the micro-scale, individual data within the context of the wider themes that were identified to enable detailed and sophisticated consideration of the data (Charmaz 2006).

The 'Black box' of professional cricket migration
The majority of migrants in this study indicated that the decision to undertake a seasonal migration to Australia reflected personal desires. This suggests at the micro-scale this style of migration is an individual choice and that migrants are demonstrating a significant level of agency. This being the case the following passage will explore how individual motivations are shaped and managed by factors at other spatial scales. Consideration will first be given the home context, the UK, to discuss how migration is influenced by regulations at the meso-and macro-scales. The discussion will then turn to the host context and how mesoand macro-scale influences shape the migration in the Australian, destination context.

Meso-scale regulation in the home country
At the meso-scale in the home country, regulation and influence on this migration flow is focused on the role of the migrant's employer, their County Cricket Club. In most cases the employers who were interviewed were supportive of their players undertaking a seasonal migration. For example, Kevin, a DoC stated: If we feel like they've not played enough cricket, it's a good opportunity to play some more cricket […] The most important thing is that they actually come back better players […] They are not going out there for a holiday; they've got to come back having improved and so that they are ready to start our domestic season.
As employers, the DoC is required to develop and improve players, and, as Don suggests, this may occur as the result of temporarily playing overseas. Despite the positive training opportunities that are demonstrated above, it is important to note the caution that is expressed by Don, when he refers to the migration as not being 'a holiday' . The potential for seasonal migration to not be as successful as intended was raised by DoC, Peter: Sometimes, players have come back not as fit as we would have liked, so that is disappointing when that happens, but it also tells you a lot about the player. We learn about them, whether it be positive or negative, at least you're learning about them […] It tells us how driven they are. It isn't easy to be away, the other side of the world, and think "I should be doing this today, but no, I don't feel like it. " Whereas, the best are making sure that they will do it.
Thus, whilst migration provides employers like Peter with a learning opportunity to gain an insight into the character of their employees, the recognition that seasonal migration may not always be a success provides an indication as to why employers regulate the movement of their players.
The ability of home employers to regulate migration changed over the course of this migration flow, as cricket has become increasingly professionalized. This evolving situation was discussed by Roger who had migrated to Australia in the late 1990s: Young players with county contracts can no longer disappear from their county for 6 months. There is a more professional set up so that counties can ensure that they are looking after their playing assets all year round.
Contemporary migrants, such as Edward, a 24-year-old batsman, who has spent two winters in Melbourne and Adelaide respectively, reflected on the regulations: I suppose if the club are investing a figure in you then they want what they are getting for that [sic], and that's not just during the season when you are representing them, it's 12 months of the year whilst you are under contract.
Despite this increasing level of regulation, unlike other professional occupations, the employer's regulatory framework appears to be comparatively unstructured. All but one DoC interviewed stated that the final decision, from the perspective of the employers as to whether an employee could migrate, lay with them. This first regulatory hurdle that prospective migrants negotiate is ordinarily straightforward. However, there are further discussions that take place with employers that shape what migration looks like.
There are two ways that employers influence and shape a player's migration -the duration and destination of migration. In the early stages of this migration flow it was common for migrants to spend the entire off-season in Australia, but DoC Henry, explained how this has changed: That's certainly changed in the last few years. I think this will continue to change things. If you speak to our players, they might say "I' d love to go for 5 months, but realistically I'm not going to go for 5 months, because I want to have a rest and things. But [Henry] will say do some training in November and December and then he'll let me go". So that will continue as a trend.
The duration of migration was found to be controlled by employers depending on the role of migrant cricketer. If a bowler had had a heavy workload over the summer season, then a period of rest and recovery was often required by coaches, or if a player had a technical flaw then they may have been asked to remain at home initially to work with coaches in indoor training schools before being allowed to migrate.
As well as controlling the duration of migration, there was evidence of employers acting to influence the destination of migration. This spatial influence is reflective of the employer's role in other skilled occupations when the destination is determined usually by business needs (Millar and Salt 2007). For the DoC, their role can be understood as looking for players to meet business needs, as through their influence they are attempting to make the migration as beneficial as possible to the player, and, in turn, their home club. Encouraging players to go to known locations was important for DoC Jeff who, when asked about the destinations of players going overseas noted: Yes, we would regulate that quite closely. But, usually through acquaintances who are at the club, may be someone who knows me, or I'll mention it to someone. So, we try to steer them in the right direction.
Home employers therefore have a significant role, both in enabling and shaping migration, and constraining movement. There were no instances in the data, but DoCs indicated that there could be circumstances where they would look to prevent migration entirely. Carter (2013) highlights the importance of considering the role of sports governing bodies in shaping an individual's migratory experience. At the national scale, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) oversee the sport, including the regulations that govern participation. However, with the exception of those players are involved in national representative teams or development programmes, the ECB do not have a role in influencing the activities of individual county cricketers during the off-season.

Macro-scale regulation in the home country
At the national level it would perhaps be assumed that more general factors could be seen to have a regulatory influence on the potential for cricketers to undertake international migration. For example, to be able to migrate legally a passport is required and it is possible that there may be instances where a player is unable to obtain a passport and, thus, the UK Home Office would be acting to regulate migration. There were no examples of this, indicating that it is assumed by migrants and their employers that, they are in possession of, or can obtain, a valid passport. This finding reflects the current situation in the literature where little attention has been paid to the ways in which emigration and related state policies can influence migration (Raghuram 2008). It is not only in the home country where migrants are subject to government policies. As in England, passport and visa regulations are in place at the national scale in Australia, and their impact on the migration of cricketers will be discussed. First, however, the local level regulatory frameworks will be investigated.

Meso-scale regulation in the host country
In Australia there are no nationally centralised regulations for cricketers participating in recreational club cricket, as this is handled at the local/state level. For example, Western Australia District Cricket Council Inc. (2018,20) competition rules state 'a club shall not play more than one Overseas Player per team in a match' while Queensland Cricket Premier Grade Handbook (2017, 18) regulations note ' A Club is permitted to play no more than two overseas players per competition on any given day of a match' . The presence of such regulations has previously been demonstrated for cricket where the participation of overseas players in English cricket is regulated (Maguire andStead 1996, 2005;Stead and Maguire 1998). The existence of conditions such as this act to regulate the participation of overseas players in Australian club cricket both in terms of spatial and temporal regulations. Spatially, it limits the destination of migration so that players are not concentrated at a single or small number of clubs. As Eric, a club cricket representative in South Australia, expressed: Clubs saw English players holding up the development of their own players. A couple of clubs still see this. Now they are more willing to have them and can see the value of an English player to add depth, create competition for sports and strengthen their team.
Eric's comments indicate that whilst there is a general appreciation that overseas players are beneficial additions to teams, something which Williams (2007) has demonstrated in terms of the value migrants can bring to the host employer, the occasionally less positive reactions demonstrate the need to regulate the inclusion of foreign workers. This feeling was one that Toby, a 28-year-old fast bowler, experienced first-hand when he migrated to New South Wales in 2012. When asked whether they were happy about the presence of an overseas player in their team he remarked: I don't think it's a problem because there is only one per team […] At the end of the previous domestic season they spent a month or so trying to sign a local lad, because they wanted someone who could come in and lead the attack and be a role model for the younger guys. That all fell through and then they went down the route of looking overseas.
In this example, the host club were accepting of Toby as his presence was seen to be beneficial for the team and there was no local player available who could fulfil the same role. The recruitment of overseas workers to overcome a specific skills shortage like in this example has previously been shown by Khoo et al. (2007) to be one of the most frequently stated motives by Australian businesses regarding their motives for employing foreign workers.
Temporally, there are regulations in place that govern the participation of overseas players in club cricket. As players are required to be registered with the league in which they are playing, they can restrict the time for which a migrant participates. The length of a player's stay with a team was noted by Eric: 'grade clubs' views have evolved over time. Initially they didn't see the value unless they were playing for the whole season' . This suggests that clubs are less willing to include more transient migrants who are only available for a short period. This was a view that was supported by club representative Gary, from Perth: Whilst we always prefer to have English players for the full 6-month season, we accept that this is part of the changing landscape of cricket, particularly in the professional game. This is a significant acknowledgment from Gary, who addresses the contrasting wishes of the host club compared to the migrant cricketers and their employers in England. Professionalization of the domestic game in England has reduced the longer-term opportunities for players to spend the whole off-season overseas, but, as Gary highlights, Australian host clubs would prefer long-term commitment from their overseas players. This changing nature of the sport is something that clubs accept and adapt to, particularly as they are seeing similar changes in the Australian professional game. This was a change that Eric reflected on: 'the whole cricket landscape has changed over the years as local players are in and out of the teams more with the amount of high-performance cricket played' . Eric's comments indicate that in the case of both overseas players and local players who are involved in professional cricket, clubs are now required to adapt to their increasingly restricted availability.
Despite this, when discussing negotiating deals with clubs, English agent Tim commented: 'The harder deals to make happen are the 3-month deals, purely because more regulations now insist that the player signs and are on-site from October/November. ' This reflects the notion that Australian host clubs would still prefer players to be available for as much of their season as possible. Tim's comments inform on the structures that are in place to regulate the temporal aspects of a player's migration. At the scale of the club they are looking to secure a player's services from the beginning of the season. At the league-scale, where player registration occurs, they too are looking for a longer commitment from players by ensuring that registration is completed by January, meaning that players are available for the second half of the Australian club cricket season. The wish of the Australian clubs to have English cricketers available to play for them for as long as possible can be considered in terms of the cost-effectiveness of recruiting someone from overseas. This was noted by employers in the work of Khoo et al. (2007) on the sponsorship of skilled, temporary workers to Australia, as they frequently cover visa application and re-location costs. Thus, the longer an overseas worker can be available, the greater the value of the return they can get for their investment.
At the local scale in Australia it is clear that playing regulations and the requirement for incoming players to be registered has a controlling influence on migration and acts to protect local players from the overseas professionals (Lowell and Avato 2014). Whilst regulations in the home country mean that migrants are available for increasingly shorter periods of time, this is contrary to the wishes of local clubs and the regulations that are currently in place. It has been shown that host clubs wish to have the migrant players available for as long as possible so that they can benefit from their presence and any investment that they have made in the incoming player. However, these contradictory regulations are further influenced by the national scale policies that are in place in Australia.

Macro-scale regulation in the host country
As noted, local level regulations are the only cricket-specific regulations in place in Australia. There are no controls and regulations at the national scale by the Australian Cricket Board. Regulations at the national level are focused on Government immigration policy and visa requirements (Ewers 2007). The short-term nature of these migrations mean that in the cases where negotiating Australian immigration policies was necessary migrants were able to obtain short-term visas rather than applying for work permits (Manning and Sidorenko 2007). Amongst the contemporary migrants (2001-present) interviewed, there were four different visa options identified. First, for two of the players interviewed, visas were not necessary Noah, a 30-year-old batsman and Justin, a 24-year-old batsman have both frequently returned to Australia to play cricket since moving to England as teenagers. Noah and Justin are dual passport holders allowing them to move freely between the two countries without being restricted by visa regulations. Second, there were examples of players being able to use an eVisitor visa. This visa category was used by Connor, a 25-year-old fast bowler, who spent 3 months in Australia re-integrating himself into cricket following an injury. For Connor the time restrictions on the eVisitor visa were suitable for the time he was looking to spend in Australia as part of his injury rehabilitation. But, for others, this visa limits the time they can spend in Australia, so Working Holiday and Holiday visas were the most frequently used visas for the migrants. These visas account for the third and fourth visa categories noted during the interviews. George, a 21-year-old spin bowler, recounted the research into visas that he had done and why he opted to travel on a Holiday Visa: I had to sort the visa because I had to work out whether I needed a Working Holiday visa or whether I could go on a Holiday visa. And in the end, I managed to go on a Holiday visa which means potentially in the future I could go out there again, because you can only use a Working Holiday visa once every 7 years or something like that.
The restrictions that are placed on these visas, in that they are only available to an individual once, were specifically noted by migrants. Three participants who had all migrated since 2010 recalled how they had experienced problems and had been restricted in subsequent trips to Australia as a result. For instance, Jack described how his second trip to Perth had been restricted to a 3 month stay because of having to use a Holiday visa: 'I' d used my Working Holiday visa before, so I could only use a Holiday visa… so it was the visa that decided it' .
For Chris, a batsman who first migrated at the age of 18, expressed how inconsistent migration arrangements caused him visa problems. Prior to his first trip to Australia his host club had arranged his visa for him and he assumed that the same would be true on his second trip. However, he articulated: I messed up, because the first time I went, they sorted out my flights and with that my visa. And then the second time I thought the same stuff would happen and it didn't. So, I had to do my visa at the airport and I had my flights booked for 5 months later but the bloke gave me an electronic visa for 3 months. I got into a bit of trouble with that when I left Australia which wasn't great.
From these examples it is possible to see how national scale regulations influence the participation of migrant cricketers in Australian club cricket. In the case of Chris, if he decides to migrate seasonally in the future he will be looking to travel to South Africa as he is unlikely to be able to obtain a visa for Australia after overstaying previously. The shortterm stays that are determined by visas provide further regulatory restrictions on migration. It can, therefore, be seen that whilst short-term stays controlled by national policy, often reflect the wishes of County Cricket employers in England, who are generally in favour of shorter term stays overseas, they contrast with the wishes of the Australian host clubs who would prefer longer-term participation.

Continued international regulation
The importance of the increasing professionalization of sport is evident through the level of management and control exercised over players by the English employers whilst cricketers are overseas. Not only is the movement process regulated by employers, but activities overseas are monitored and regulated. This style of management of players whilst they are overseas is outlined by Jeff, a DoC: We'll monitor them regularly and we expect results back on their fitness tests. We email them every other week, so we keep in close contact with them.
Alongside these arrangements for regular contact, there were examples other types of surveillance of players. One example of this was provided by Stuart, a 31-year-old fast bowler and a repeat migrant who had spent several winters in Australia: There was an example this year, I think I bowled 25 over in my first game, so I obviously wasn't cricket fit, because I' d had a couple, may be 4 weeks without bowling […] and the physio was straight on the email because he' d seen the scorecard.
It is interesting to note the significance of electronic forms of communication that are being used by employers to manage and regulate migration whilst players are overseas (Dekker and Engbersen 2014). This, in itself, reflects wider changes associated with globalizing processes, with technological improvements enabling this contact (Thulin and Vilhelmson 2014) and increased control. However, it demonstrates that despite the assertion that technological change would negate the need for migration, physical relocation is still necessary for these migrants, but the nature of the migration has evolved to embrace technological and occupational change.

Concluding thoughts
This article has provided an insight into the complex web of multi-scalar management and regulation of the temporary, seasonal migration of professional cricketers moving from England to Australia. There are a multitude of actors and institutions involved at the micro-, meso-and macro-scales in both the home and destination contexts. The complexities of the multi-scalar analysis have demonstrated the importance of analysing these scales together, given the contrasting ways in which they enable and constrain migration. One of the starker examples of this is the differences in migration that are desired and enabled by actors and institutions in the home and host countries.
Regulations, notably at the scale of the home employers, have been shown to have become increasingly prevalent since the turn of the century, following the introduction of 12-month contracts in English County Cricket. This was one example of professionalization and the impact it can have on migration. A further impact was highlighted at the meso-scale in Australia when the professionalization of the sport was shown to have reduced the period of time for which professional players are available to play for recreational cricket clubs. The regulations outlined here were shown to have contradictory impacts for different groups of stakeholders and intermediaries. Whilst the specificities of this are unique to this case study it highlights the importance of considering both the emigration and immigration contexts when investigating regulatory controls on migration.
Migration has come to be understood in relation to the role that commercial actors play in facilitating the process of international migration. What has been exposed through this case study is that for cricket, commercial actors, such as sports agents, have a comparatively minor role in mediating migration. Instead, intermediaries and other brokers at the meso-scale interact with individual migrants and macro-scale national policy to shape migration. This would suggest that at the meso-scale, migration intermediaries, both commercial and non-commercial brokers play a significant role in determining the characteristics of migration. As a consequence of this it is clear that opening the 'black box' of migration processes (Lindquist et al. 2012) and exploring them simultaneously at multiple spatial scales is vital for understanding international migration flows in skilled occupations including professional sport.
To conclude, this article has demonstrated how studies of sport can move beyond drawing on only the geographical principles of space and place (Bale and Maguire 1994;Wise 2015). It has been shown that using scale, specifically a multi-scalar approach, is a valuable perspective for studying athletic labour migration. Likewise, it has demonstrated how the use of a case study of professional sport can provide an insight into processes of skilled migration that would be of interest to geographers.