Tymal Mills has played 16 T20Is for England.
The England seamer, who is now playing for the Southern Brave in The Hundred, responded quickly to the inevitable query regarding the content of his videos.
“Categorically, yes. 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,” he told Telegraph UK when asked whether his videos would be ‘safe for work.’
Mills clarified that he conducted research on the platform's reputation and reach before starting talks with it a year ago.
“The conversations first started about a year ago, so I read up, held conversations, and did my due diligence. I hadn’t quite realized how big the company was. They’re trying to get into football and 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. At 33, Mills is nearing the end of a career that has seen him play in franchise leagues all over the world. He plans to utilize the opportunity to give insights that fans don't often see.
“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. 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, and expose 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,” Mills added.
According to Mills, the appeal is in offering a genuine, unvarnished view of cricket life that is very different from the slick highlight reels that predominate on social media.
“I will use video clips to talk about what I am thinking at certain points, a good day, a bad day. Also training footage, showing what I am trying to improve and why. Give more context.
I am going to talk about the bad side of the game. On social media, you predominantly see the great stuff: highlights, sixes, fours, and 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.
Mills played 16 T20Is for England, taking 14 wickets. He has also played 10 games in the IPL for two franchises and has 11 wickets to his name.