Tymal Mills is breaking new ground in cricket by becoming the first professional player to partner with OnlyFans, a platform more commonly associated with adult content but now branching into mainstream sports.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, the England seamer, who is currently playing for the Southern Brave in The Hundred, was quick to address the inevitable question about the nature of his videos.
“Categorically, yes,” he told Telegraph UK, when asked whether his videos would be ‘safe for work’.
“I know exactly what people might think, and what they are best known for. But I’ll be putting stuff out that is about cricket, and maybe a little bit of lifestyle content too.”
Mills explained that discussions with the platform began a year ago, during which time he researched its reach and reputation.
“The conversations first started about a year ago, so I read up, held conversations and did my due diligence. I hadn’t quite realised how big the company was. They’re trying to get into football, get Premier League footballers on the platform. They’re doing well with ‘smaller’ sports like surfing and skateboarding, individual sports,” he said.
With his signing, OnlyFans has now made its first move into cricket. “I’m the first cricketer, and they’re trying to get into team sports. It’s ground zero in that regard and I’m very excited. I want to be brave.”
At 33, Mills is in the latter stages of a career that has taken him around the world in franchise leagues, and he intends to use the platform to share insights rarely seen by fans.
“I’m doing this late in my career so I have a lot I can talk about,” he said. “I want to talk about the game, be a bit more vulnerable, exposing what is going on behind the scenes, in my mind. Fans watch the games in the ground or on TV but they don’t know exactly what is going on in the mind.”
Will talk about the ‘bad side’ of cricket
For Mills, the appeal lies in providing an unfiltered, authentic perspective on cricketing life, far removed from the polished highlight reels that dominate social media.
“I will use video clips to talk about what I am thinking at certain points, a good day, bad day. Also training footage, showing what I am trying to improve and why. Give more context,” he explained.
This will extend to moments of difficulty as well.
“I am going to talk about the bad side of the game. On social media, you predominantly see the great stuff, highlights, sixes, fours, wickets. But what happens when you get whacked, or get dropped. It doesn’t make it to social media because that’s not great self-promotion. I will try to be as open as I can and show both sides of the coin,” said Mills.