Harry is the first person welcomed by cricket club (4)
I believe the answer is:
bait
'harry' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the first person welcomed by cricket club' is the wordplay.
'the first person' becomes 'i'.
'welcomed by' indicates putting letters inside (I've seen this in other clues).
'cricket club' becomes 'bat' (I've seen this before).
'i' inserted within 'bat' is 'BAIT'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for bait that I've seen before include "Enticement, lure" , "Boilie, for example" , "Lure; tease" , "What lures" , "Deliberately annoy or taunt" .)