Tymal Mills: From Nearly Retiring at 22 to a Mega IPL Deal & OnlyFans Partnerships (Ep120)

35:52Tymal Mills:Is it, you know, the atmosphere? Is it, do you actually feed off that? Is it money? Is it acclaim? You know, everyone will be motivated by different things. But Test cricket still does have a massive place for a lot of players. Most players still, you know, if they got the opportunity to play Test cricket, they would take it. They wouldn't turn it down. That still certainly does live true, especially, you know, in the bigger countries that pay well as well. When we had Pat Cummins on a couple of weeks ago, you said the players literally this year I mean they were turning down half a million quid to play the test match series in Bangladesh yeah those guys will still be getting paid very well by Cricket Australia the ECB and the BCCI it's the countries you know like the West Indies those Caribbean players where the discrepancy is just so huge between what they would earn to play for the West Indies versus what they can earn to play franchise cricket that's where the that's where the huge disconnect is with cricket at the moment which is you know which is forcing players to make unpopular decisions.

36:53Tymal Mills:Well, for the most part, anyway. What was it like going to Pakistan and playing? Was it cool? It was. I went, so I was one of the first batches of players that went when they had cricket reinstated. So they lost cricket for a long time when there was a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. So there wasn't any international or domestic cricket played in Pakistan. So they had their T20 tournament held in Dubai for quite a long time. and then slowly they started to phase it in so one year was the final was held in in pakistan then the year after it was the knockout stages were held in pakistan and yeah we were nervous because you know you you'd you'd you'd seen things you'd heard things and um you know a lot of us were still quite young and but the security and the security was huge it was president we got presidential level security streets roads closed helicopters army on the roofs of buildings like it was and even now the security level is so high in pakistan but the one thing that stuck with me was i've been to pakistan now maybe five six times the especially in those early years they were so grateful for the foreign because it was it was it was just more the foreign players going there and you know get because that helped them then bring international cricket back there and what eventually you know champions trophies played there so they can now essentially be they're uninhibited in terms of what they can host um but they're so so grateful the amount of messages and even from the players you know some big name players really appreciative of the foreign guys for coming and trusting the you know the government and the system and everything and and as i've been there many times now and never had a single problem i was there i was there during covert when covert started so that was but that's not a you know that's not a security threat that was just more okay we need to probably go home now because the world the world seems to be ending but But Pakistan, it's a cool country and they love cricket and they were starved, because they were starved of it for so long.

38:48Tymal Mills:They were so hungry for it when it came back and the appetite for it there is huge. Do you have a favourite? Country. Yeah, to play. These tournaments, obviously, I'd imagine a lot of similarities, but there must be some. Yeah, I think the SA20. So I played SA20 for the first time this year for Pretoria Capitals and it was amazing. It was the most fun I've had playing cricket. in my career. Why? South Africa in December, January is just an amazing time of year to being an amazing country. I think that for whatever reason, they've got really good buy-in from the public. So South Africa haven't had a major tournament until the SA20 came about.

39:31Tymal Mills:And yes, it's all IPL owned. They're all six teams that own subsidiaries of the IPL franchises. But they've just adopted it. Every game was sold out, essentially the atmosphere. you've got the bands. It was really authentic. They're cricket grounds as well. It's not like you go to Australia and they're multi-use grounds. Every ground is unique. They're proper cricket stadiums. And it just works. So I've watched it on TV and heard from other guys. Everyone says, yeah, the SC20 is awesome. But this year, I actually got the opportunity to go and play. And honestly, it was amazing. And the cricket was a really good standard.

40:03Tymal Mills:It was hard. It was tough cricket. But the weather's amazing. The food's amazing in South Africa. You get to travel around the country, see all the different parts of it. So yeah, at the moment, the SA20 is four weeks long, five weeks long. The culture, you know, South Africa's just a cool, I don't know if you've been, it's a cool place. It's a cool place. To play cricket. Yeah, I guess. It's just a cool place to be. And especially at that time of year, I think right now it's number one for me. It's amazing. That was quite a late opportunity for you, wasn't it? When you were already in the Middle East.

40:32Tymal Mills:Yeah, so I was playing, well, yeah, last winter. So I didn't have a great English summer. So last summer, so 2025. But had a few months off at the end of the summer just to kind of get the body right, see where I'm at, work on a couple of things. And then I played the Abu Dhabi T10, which is a tournament that happens every year. So a 10-over tournament. Bowled really well there, felt really good. My team lost in the final there. And I had a contract for the ILT20, which is in Dubai. So I went straight from Abu Dhabi over to Dubai. But because my team made the final in Abu Dhabi, I literally arrived at my team the day before the first game in Dubai.

41:09Tymal Mills:which means I didn't get picked for the first game because kind of everybody else had been there for a week and they'd, you know, had practice matches and such, whereas I arrived late. So I didn't get picked for the first game, which was fine. I didn't get picked for the second game, didn't get picked for the third game. I was kind of struggling as I'm not getting a game here. By this time, my family had flown over for Christmas. So we had Christmas planned in Dubai. The ILT20 was running literally over Christmas. So my wife flew out with our two kids, but I wasn't playing. So we were essentially not having a holiday.

41:39Tymal Mills:because I was going to training, I was 12th man for the games and that was it. I just wasn't getting a game. In the meantime, my agent calls me and says, our Pretoria Capitals have had some injuries. They want to know if you can go and play in the SA20. I'm like, yeah, of course. I'd love to. They tell me I'm going to play there. I'm not playing here. But they said that they only want you if they need you there for the first game of the season. They don't want you to come. So normally there was an overlap of the tournaments. the ILT20 would finish in the new year. SA20 started on Boxing Day. So there was a little bit of an overlap, but they said they wanted me for the first game to be ready.

42:19Tymal Mills:So I had to ask for my release from the Dubai contracts that I had, which they were happy to do because they could save half of my salary to let me go. I wasn't playing, no hard feelings or anything. It was just one of those things. They had other bowlers, team was doing okay. I wasn't getting a game so that was sweet but then i had to send my family home back to the uk on my wife flew home with the kids on the 23rd of december i think it was and i had to fly to i flew to south africa on christmas eve uh so all of a sudden we went from having christmas planned in dubai present i'd bought you know presents in dubai for the kids to all of a sudden telling my wife sorry you're i've got a contract now in south africa i'm going to play the money was good you're going to have to go home now and spend Christmas back in the UK with your parents that was a tough that was a tough decision and those situations crop up within cricket and franchise cricket the short-term nature of things the in September for example my agent calls me on a Monday afternoon uh St.

43:22Tymal Mills:Lucia Kings have had an injury in the CPL can you fly out there for the knockouts I'm like yeah okay when do they need me tomorrow morning okay my wife's at work in London we haven't got childcare sorted we've got two young kids um so again you're trying to scramble around okay my wife now has to cancel her meetings later in the week because she has to be at home because I'm all of a sudden now in Guyana um these things crop up in franchise cricket a lot and it you know puts strain on your on your family life as well um but hopefully it's one of those things that you know looking back you know when I'm when we're old and gray we'll look back and be happy that we you know we took these opportunities when they come but in in the moment it's tough it's a hidden side of professional sport isn't it you know everything we see as fans and um you enjoy watching on tv yeah you take that for granted or not even take it for granted you don't even think about it no um it is great like i'm i can't sit here and ask people to cry for me but you know i go i as i say it does it has another effect on your family and i'm away for the you know then i went to south africa we made the final of the sa20 which extends your trip so i was in south africa for five weeks so that's five weeks extra that then my wife's on on her own at home we don't have grandparents that live near us so we're our child care is a bit tricky at times and you know my wife's working full time and she's trying to juggle all that in the meantime i'm in cape town having an absolute you know having a belter and in it's january in england and it's you know you can imagine oh we had one time we we were doing a loft conversion in the house the house so the whole that the the roof's off the house is freezing it's december and my wife bless her she's she's doing her best but she's she's not happy with me because at the same time i'm in barbados on the literally on the beach literally oh great evening you know sat by the beach with the boys and she's you know in the depths of winter in the uk with no roof on the house um two kids yeah Two young children trying to entertain and keep warm.

45:21But did that take time as a, you know, from a relationship perspective? How long have you been with Dubai?

45:27Tymal Mills:God, married six years together, nine years maybe, yeah. So she's been with you for a lot of your... So I met her in Dubai playing in that PSL where I got bought in the auction, IPL auction. Wow. Yeah, so she was living and working in Dubai at the time. So she works in foreign currency then in Dubai, now in the UK. And yeah, I met her then. yeah but I'd imagine it is you know it's such a key part of you being able to do what you do having that kind of partnership away from the game that allows you to actually do this because it's a massive sacrifice on her side if she's got a career and a job as well being you know at the front end of childcare when you are off to the Caribbean for four weeks on a jolly literally and it's it's not easy it's hard and it's puts a strain on you at times but no she's amazing and it's you know she puts up with a lot and as I'm sure that you've spoken to so many sports people and I'm sure every one of them says we're selfish and we have to be and we can always be more selfish like I could always do more if I really you know if I went 100 % on sport and recovery and everything else like you know I could you know literally never see my family if that's what you know if that's how I wanted to be but yeah we're selfish but you justify it because it's a short career you think okay I can you know pay now and you know get the rewards later and also we love what we do like I well most people do I love playing cricket and I know when I retire I won't be going to Barbados and Cape Town and Australia and getting the opportunity to do these amazing things well I'm sure hopefully I will but you know chances are you just have to take them with you exactly and you gotta pay for a full holiday for you know for everybody but um yeah so I'm very lucky to have a wife who's who's who supported me through through that time she met me i guess at the height of it i guess so she knew you know what i was doing and stuff you know didn't come out of the blue i guess but as soon as you chuck kids into it and um yeah our daughter got sick we were she had a stroke a couple of years ago we were at the airport about to fly to australia um to play in the big bash we were all going as a family to perth and she collapsed and obviously i had to canceled that contract and we were in hospital for a few weeks and that puts a whole other strain on things um because you've got health kind of now I'm going now am I going away and leaving you know a child who's luckily she's recovered brilliantly and she's amazing um but at the time you don't know what the future is going to look like and um you know that's more of a strain on you know okay can I leave or should I be now be at home and you know how do you juggle these things so um yeah we've been through a lot but we'll look back on on on this chapter of our lives as a really fun time and and be better off for it and the realities of that I guess you know it's a pressure on also the fragility of the contracts that you're working with and you know everything from a financial perspective all of that matters as well i've been lucky in terms of i've had security in the uk in terms of my sussex contract and then now that now that we have the hundred even though the hundred one-year contracts i've done well in the hundred and it's i've always had a good contract in the hundred so from april through to august i know where i'm going to be um i know who i'm playing for I'm at home and I'm playing cricket so and then in the winter that's the the wild west I guess who knows what's going to happen hopefully I can get a repeat contract somewhere but probably it's just going to be a case of seeing what I can get and hopefully I get a contract with enough notice that my wife knows where I'm going to be but it might be a case of can you fly tomorrow and go and play um but I'm my county contract with Sussex has been pretty much the foundation of everything I've been able to achieve.

49:22Because it gives you just a security.

49:24Tymal Mills:It gives me a base, security. Financially, it's one of my lower contract, or probably is my lowest contract that I'll earn throughout the year, but you get 12 months of the year coverage. So if I get injured in South Africa in January, I'm coming home to Sussex and I'll get rehabbed there and I've got a gym and a physio and the support and everything I need, which as a player has been invaluable. And if I need to go training, like before here, we're about to start the season for Sussex. But for example, last September, before I'm about to go off and play franchise cricket, I'm in at Sussex every day, in the gym, in the indoor school, in the nets, just practicing training.

50:04Tymal Mills:I have access to the ground. So I'm lucky a lot of players don't have that. If they go full franchise, full freelance, they don't necessarily have that. And it's 100 % on them. Whereas what Sussex have given me has been, you know, paramount to everything that I've been able to achieve in cricket. And so amongst all of the movement around the world, when you have that stability, what are the obligations from you to Sussex for that contract? So I have to get it for every contract that I play. I have to get an NOC, so a no objection certificate from Sussex, essentially. So it's from your home board.

50:34Tymal Mills:One from the ECB and one from your county who you're employed by. So I get picked up in the SA20. I need an NOC from Sussex to say, yeah, no problem. so they have to sign that and then now they've only actually introduced it a couple of years ago is we have to take insurance out against our county contracts so if I was to get injured playing in the SA20 and missed games for Sussex Sussex wouldn't lose out financially on that so they'd be able to claim on the insurance against my contract you have to take insurance personally we have to pay that yeah and to be honest it's the PCA so the Professional Cricket Association handle all that and it's a pretty good deal.

51:17Tymal Mills:It's not like, it's not hurting you too much really financially and it makes sense. Yeah. Fair play. We can go and earn wherever we want in the winter but, you know, you have to, you have to give that, that security to your county. It's a trade-off right there. They're giving you the solidity. Yeah. But also for you as someone who is a specialist, you want to call it, to have that with a county where so much of county cricket has been in four-day games and you should be saying longer form is, that's great loyalty. Yeah. and I said I'm into my 12th year now with Sussex they gave me I had a testimonial year last year um it was yeah and the biggest message I had to give I was I'm not retiring like it was just okay they've given me a testimonial year it's great but every event I'm at okay I'm still playing I've still got you know two years left my contract I'm you know I feel great um but yeah the club just have given me an awful lot and I like to think I give back as well you know with the the foundation at Sussex and doing bits around and because we live in hovers where I live five minutes from the ground so I'm always around I'm always available to to do bits uh tomorrow I'm filming something for one of the club sponsors and those little things they use me you know as and when they need can we talk about England yeah we've done you know we've moved all around the franchises and and international cricket is a really important part of that discussion because congested calendars and trying to align everything seems like one of the hardest jobs to do you've also had a you know um a significant England career you've been part of world cup winning squads um in probably the most successful short form era of cricket the england scene but at the same time when i was looking at the stats i was like he's only played 16 games yeah but in my head you played way more than that what's the international career summary for you like that you've had because that as i said that that surprised me yeah i don't really see myself as an england cricketer if i'm being honest I said I've I've barely played yeah basically I got brought in for two world cups but aside from that haven't really played an awful lot I made my debut as I mentioned earlier when I basically when I made my debut there wasn't an awful lot of international t20 cricket played it was still of the era of 50 over cricket so if I remember correctly the the summer I made my England debut there was a one-off t20 and five ODIs I think was the the schedule of that that tour so i played the t20 and then i wasn't playing 50 over cricket again i think then i think later in the summer they played pakistan i think again a one-off t20 and maybe three odis so i'd kind of dip in for a squad play a game and then be gone again and then to be fair during my mid-20s i had a lot of injuries i was injured quite a lot and not selected or so that was no real kind of gripe there and then yeah the first year of the hundred came about and i bowled really well and kind of I was 28 maybe then, and I was one of the best bowlers in the competition.

54:09Tymal Mills:Joffre Archer got injured that year, unfortunately. So there was a kind of a space in England team ahead of the World Cup, and I got picked for the World Cup. So that was a really nice moment because I think that was about five years apart from my last England appearance to the next one. And it was a World Cup in the UAE. It was just after COVID, and it was amazing. So I felt like an England player then. I played, I played the first game against the West Indies in Dubai, played against Australia, was a leading wicket-taker for us. And then I pulled my quad in the last group stage game, I think it was against Sri Lanka, and had to sit and watch when we lost in the semi-final to New Zealand in Abu Dhabi.

54:47Tymal Mills:And it was terrible. It was only a minor injury, but I was out for a few weeks and that was that. In the meantime, in the subsequent years, I had some other really good summers for England particularly in 100, performed really well and then didn't get picked for England on the back of it, off the back of it. Kind of messaging was always around, okay, we're going to have a look at other guys, younger guys, we know what you can do, that type of thing, which I personally, I pushed back on because that doesn't help me at all. Like, I want to play. I haven't played a lot. And then I got picked for another World Cup in Australia that we won, but I didn't play.

55:26Tymal Mills:I was 12th man for the whole tournament. Myself and David Willey didn't play a game. So whilst, yeah, you can say you're a World Cup winner, you're not really. In my eyes, like you don't, you weren't on the pitch. You know, no kid dreams about being on the bench for a World Cup final, do you? You dream about scoring the winning goal or, you know, taking the winning catch, bowling the winning wicket, whatever it might be. So you really don't consider yourself a World Cup winner because you're a part of the squad and the squad, everyone, like it's a squad wins a tournament. It does. Yeah. But as I said, as a selfish sports person, you want to, you know, still for that month, it was an amazing month or however long it was in Australia.

56:00Tymal Mills:again an amazing country the World Cup like and I loved it it was great but yeah you just it's not the same it's not the same when you're not you know especially when you play a single it's not like it's not like I played okay I played one of the group stage games it's not like in football you can even say okay I came off the bench three times and you know I literally just ran drinks for five weeks and trained that was really my contribution to the squad but I was ready if the opportunity would have come, I was ready. But I'm still proud to have been part of the squad. I'm not saying I didn't want to be there.

56:36Tymal Mills:But you'd rather have been there in that 11. You know, it hits a little bit differently. And then since then, I haven't featured for England since then. Bo Morgan said he'd only consider you in a World Cup yet, right? So, I mean, that kind of... Yeah, again, it's frustrating. That was, yes, that was when I was a bit... So that was during the time where I was injured quite a lot. And for right or for wrong, I back myself. Even now, I feel like I'm still good enough to play for England. And I don't know whether this, you know, I haven't had any contact with England for a few years now. But honestly, I'm okay with it.

57:08Tymal Mills:And I just want to play as much cricket as I can, stay healthy, play at a high level, perform well. But you'd want to, like, you'd keep yourself available. Yeah, I haven't retired. I'm, yeah, I'm available if anybody wanted to pick me. But also, if that ship sailed, then that's fine. You can only control what you can control. But I still, you know, I feel really good. My pace feels good. I'm confident like we've got another busy summer coming up now the blast about to start straight into the 100 that's all I'm focusing on right now and what will be will be after that we hear so much about the demands on players and you mentioned previously about how many months of the year you're away for beforehand when we were downstairs talking we were talking about just the amount of cricket that some of these guys are having at play now do you think something has to give are we sustainable in what we're really asking for and what I really want the response from this from you from is if sport is and you're a big nfl fan right if sport is about the quality of a product having more and more of it may be great for some means because you can sell more tv rights and you get more fans in the stadium but if the product suffers and the cricket isn't as good because the players can't perform at the highest level when they're on the pitch eventually that's going to have a negative impact on the whole cricket product yeah i think the problem cricket has is that there's three formats of cricket.

58:26Tymal Mills:It's not just one game. There's T20 cricket, 50 over cricket and test match cricket. So there's essentially three different sports within a sport. So naturally, you're going to saturate it, aren't you? Because it's not just one product. So that's the main issue, I think. And players, there's so much choice now. But as I said, most of the players you speak to in England, if you offer them a test cap, they'd bite your hand off. And that still holds a lot of value, without a doubt. When I was younger, where I wanted to play test cricket for England. My decision was made for me due to injury. Whether I would have achieved it or not, who knows?

59:01Tymal Mills:But most players still want to play test match cricket. But the challenge is now that you earn a lot of money not doing so and going off and doing T20s. 50 over cricket is obviously the format that's probably the most under pressure. The format players enjoy the least. There's less reward there. there's no domestic 50 over cricket really being played at all certainly none that pays as well as t20 cricket um it does just feel i mean i'm again a huge fan now i watch i used to love it and now i watch it and i'm you know the first 30 overs the way we're playing our test match cricket we're sometimes scoring quicker in test matches than we are in the first 30 overs of odis and then the last 20 i'm just watching a t20 yeah so you you kind of look at it and go it's just really now become a combination of both of those yeah and as you said because now in in england obviously the schedule is is the most talked about thing in english cricket and the 100 taking prime time and now no 50 over cricket is played at the highest level because it's played at the same time as the 100 so it's been neglected and it just had something had to be because you can't fit all the cricket into the english summer the english summer isn't long enough that you can you know fit with enough space a good product so 50 over cricket was what we had to kind of get pushed by the wayside and unfortunately we can't fit everything and you can't do something that just fits everything and pleases everybody and I think rightly they've made the decision to prioritise short form cricket and test match cricket.

1:00:31Observers, fans hat on, pretty depressing winter for England cricket fans. There's been you know lots of talk have changed now continuities has been confirmed. We look at different types of players coming in. The bowling department's obviously one that's got a significant shift and kind of change coming to it. You have Broad and Anderson holding down so much of that for so many years. It's inevitable, right, sport when it happens. What do you think about the kind of depth and the quality of the bowlers that we have at the moment to try and fill some of that excitement within the test squad?

1:01:05Tymal Mills:I think the irony is I think Jimmy Anderson's the leading wicket-taker in the county championship this year. Still bowling all the overs and taking loads of wickets for Lancashire. But yeah, I think, yeah, going back to the winter, I think with the Ashes, it was a shame because it was, this Ashes was really built up to be, okay, England have got a really good chance here. And if England are at full throttle here, they should win the Ashes. And I think the thing that probably I found straight, so I was in the UAE for most of it. And then South Africa, because the games were so short, there wasn't anything to watch.

1:01:38Tymal Mills:It was like, it got built up to this massive occasion. And then, okay, the first test was over in two days and then there was two weeks or whatever it was until the next test and it loses momentum and then the next test doesn't go very long and then you know there's a again another two and a half day test here so it just felt really like disjointed um which was a shame because i i thought england were going to go there and do really well i think i think everybody everybody did and it wasn't misplaced judgment uh at the time i don't think but looking to where they're at now um yeah it's obviously it's a tough it's always tough because the english test summer now comes straight after the ipl so some of these players are going to come in not ready in terms of having not played and practiced four-day cricket the bowlers joffra for example is going to have a pure diet of t20 cricket well they put him straight into a test match you know they talk about bowling loads and red zones and spikes and stuff like that so then you're looking at county cricket and who's performing well um ollie robinson my teammate down at sussex you know he's taking wickets pretty regularly down now at Sussex.

1:02:38He's just had a good game whilst we're recording now.

1:02:41Tymal Mills:Wants to come back as well, doesn't he? Yeah, of course he does. He's had a taste of it. He's done well. He just hasn't stayed fit when he has played. So from what I understand, he's been told that the door's open to him. We'll find out if he gets selected ahead of this summer. But he's saying all the right things and doing all the right things. He's captain now for the four-day stuff at Sussex and he's bowling his overs. He's taken wickets. He scored 100 at the Oval last week, so that helps. But there's a lot of exciting players Sonny Baker he's bowling fast at Hampshire Josh Tung who was probably the one one of the bowlers to come out of the ashes with a bit of credit he's now doing really well for the bowler unfortunately I said it I said it so Tung's probably your one that he's going to play because he looks and he's doing well this summer but there's spots up for grabs which as a player is exciting and again the England hierarchy I guess are making the right noises that they're going to start looking at county cricket a bit more and taking those performances more seriously now when picking the international side.

1:03:41Style in cricket has changed. I don't want to use basball because now we know what it means, but the style of obviously our test match cricket has changed dramatically. The style of even short form cricket has changed dramatically. I mean, I had a stat here that I was looking at, which was ridiculous. I saw a video. It said in, I think it was 2009, there was one score over 200 in the IPL. Last year, there were 52. there's 46 already this year scores over 200 so you've got england scoring 400 in a day in test match cricket you've got scores of 260 being chased in 2020 cricket like this kind of shift is incredible on one side from a viewer's perspective what does it do for a bowler yeah

1:04:23Tymal Mills:it's hard because it's about scoring runs now right you know it's if you want to look the the mindset you need to try and have with it is that it does create an even bigger opportunity because if as a bowler, if you can be the one bowler... To do well in a game where all the bowlers have done poorly, it makes you stand out even more. And it also, it makes the game, you stop looking at the game from 20 overs and you start looking at it in two, in two little over blocks. Because say my team bats first and we score 250. you know really if you can bowl two good overs if you can have two overs that go for five in that 20 overs you're probably going to win because the run rate for the rest of those overs has to be so high when it's already it's already high it has to be astronomical does that make sense so there is opportunity there's opportunity there it's just managing it's just i guess you have to focus on the small details so much your margin for error becomes so small because in in this situation, the conditions are clearly so against you if a team is able to score 240, 260, that clearly the batters are on top here.

1:05:33Tymal Mills:And then also, it won't be like that every game. You will have games where it's your day or it should be your day, but it's making sure you capitalize on them because you need that credit in the bank for when you do have a bad day, which is coming. You need those good memories from your coaches, your captains, the selectors, whoever it might be, because if you're constantly just going around the park, then you're not going to find yourself in the team. Do you think it's changed test match bowling? You know, if I look at then the aggressive format that England have played now, do you think that changes in the requirements for bowling in a longer form game when batters are being far more aggressive?

1:06:02Tymal Mills:I think it tests your tactics and your relationship with your captain because if bowlers are, Travis Head was brilliant with it in Australia, he put the bowlers under pressure and forced you to change and change the field because in the test, I've never played test match cricket so it's difficult for me to say but you want to have four slips or three slips in a gully, you know, a couple of men around the back, that's for most of the day. That's what you want. That's traditional test match cricket, isn't it? And then, okay, they might hit you for a cover drive through the covers. They might hit you for a pull shot, but okay, we'll live with it.

1:06:31Tymal Mills:Whereas now the ball's flying early and suddenly, okay, well, we can't just keep all the men in because then it's going to keep scoring boundaries. So then you have to spread the field. Then it gives them easy singles everywhere. Then you can't build any pressure because they're either able to hit a boundary or just get off strike. Because what a bowler wants to do, you want to bowl dot balls. You want to think, I want to bowl a good ball and it's either going to get them out or they're not going to score. That's the fundamentals of bowling of test cricket, really. Whereas now you get thrown off your length or the field has to spread.

1:07:00Tymal Mills:You bowl your really good ball and they're just getting an easy single and then all of a sudden they're going at five and over without even having to take a risk. So that's where the successful aggressive batters in the modern game, I think, have challenged the bowlers most. I mean, I was looking at, you play 259 T20s. You've got an average of 23.36. Well, that was according to wiki. So maybe, I mean, give or take. That's outrageously good for T20 cricket, right? Yeah, but you take more wiki. Yeah, I think for me, anything under 25, I think is a good average in T20 cricket. Anything under 20 is excellent.

1:07:37Tymal Mills:I'm sure Boomer and these type of guys, I don't have his numbers to hand, but I'm sure he'd be under 20. So that's, yeah, I'm happy with that. Are you happy with 20? Yeah, I'm happy with 20. It's your economy right now, though, to be honest. If I'd rather have a better economy rate than a better average. That's so hot. Yeah. Again, as we were talking about with economies now, I mean, surely, isn't it a wicket-taking? You'd maybe give 20 runs in and over if you can get Travis Head out. Yeah, so that's where context is. Context is massive. The game who, so that's where stats can be tough because you can look at a bowler could bowl four overs and take one for 50, which is a bad day by anybody's metric.

1:08:18Tymal Mills:But if that one wicket was the batter that was on 100 or 90 at the time and he still had four overs left that one wicket is really valuable and even though you've had a bad day there or even your bowling second you've had a bad day you've bowled three overs for 40 yeah but you've got to defend 11 off the last over if you do it if you if that last over goes for 10 and you win you've bowled four overs for 50 there but you won the game because of that last over then that won't come up on the scorecard or in the wikipedia so context is really important within cricket um to take stats away a little bit okay so you've been doing some really interesting stuff alongside the game and i want to use that as a segue to talk about it because i saw i'm going to hijack your really good content and have you explain it for everyone because i loved it it was great the lot you're bowling the last over in a t20 game how are you approaching those six balls again ball one it doesn't even start there so because because by the time you've bowled the first ball of your last over you've already bowled three overs in the game yeah so you're already in a position where either you're going well you're going badly or you're in the middle so your confidence that affects your confidence if if i bought three overs and i've already been hit for 40 runs and then i've got to go bowl that last over you need to be able to put those three overs away that's really important if you're coming into it with your head down you know your shoulders a little bit down that's going to translate into your performance that's that's really important because t20 is such a short game um you've got to be able to identify who you're bowling at so i do i'm quite big on doing my homework before the game i go out onto the pitch of a piece of paper that i've written down with the analyst, the names of the batters, whether pace on or pace off is a good option, and whether they ramp, so whether they pace scoop shot, ticker across.

1:10:15Tymal Mills:So I've got that. So I know that. Because it's hard. Once you're in the game, basically we'll have an analysis meeting the day of the game or the night before the game. But when you're out in the middle, you might forget it. So actually I write it down on a bit of paper. So is pace on or pace off? So are there strike rates higher against pace off or pace on bowling? because that gives you an inclination of whether to bowl slow balls or whether to bowl fast balls. So those are little things that I do on the pitch to help me. And then gut instincts, a big part of it as well. You need to analyze the wicket.

1:10:46Tymal Mills:Okay, because by the time it gets the end of the over, end of the innings, obviously some of the game has already happened. So you'll know, okay, slow balls are working on the wicket today or slow balls aren't working on the wicket today. The boundary sizes play a big, if you've got a short leg side boundary, you need to bowl wide. So that's the hardest thing about T20 cricket at the moment is you don't always play in the middle of the pitch. So you often have a short boundary on one side. So the batters will target that short boundary wherever they can. So there's a lot of times in cricket where you know what's going to happen.

1:11:17Tymal Mills:I'm bowling to a short boundary on the leg side. The batter's going to try and hit it there. I'm going to try and bowl it wide to try and get him hit to the long boundary. And it's just a case of who can execute the best. And those are the tough situations as a bowler because you don't really have anywhere to go. you can't really bowl a bouncer to the short boundary because you're probably going to get hit for six. Unless you can bluff. And then it's just a roll of the dice. So sorry, to answer it, to go back to this. We've got all of that and you haven't even bowled a ball yet. Haven't bowled a ball yet.

1:11:46Tymal Mills:So you've got to assess all of that. Who are you bowling at? Are they in good touch? Are they going well? Who's at the other end? Firstly, okay, on the other end of this, you're back to your RCB team. You have to choose one of the following to face. It's Head, Coley, AB, Gale. Oh, Gale and Davilias. As in to be on my team? No. That's who you're bowling at right now. Okay. It's a tough day out. Because, yeah, by the time you're bowling at them, they're probably in. Davilias was probably the worst because he hit, you know, he was known as Mr. 360. He could hit you. He could manipulate the ball to anywhere he wanted to on his day.

1:12:21Tymal Mills:If you typed in his, you know, highlight reel on YouTube, it'd be amazing. Like, just the entertainment value. And I was lucky enough to play with him. and taste a little bit of it and you can first hand and see it and experience it and yeah he was special okay so you're bowling this last over who do you want to bowl at in this situation I'm giving you you've got the best chance of winning a game I know there's not many like positives in there but yeah it's tough because you know you'd probably say Travis but at the moment he smokes it everywhere but Chris Gale in his pomp could literally hit every ball out of the ground you know he's such a big man and hit the biggest because those guys don't need to get you know the middle of the bat they just need to get a bit of, you know, as long as it's not the edge, it's probably going to go for six.

1:13:05Tymal Mills:That's one thing we say in analysis is conditions dictate your plan because it doesn't matter who you're bowling at. If you've got a short leg side boundary, you have to bowl wide. Most of the time you can throw the odd ball in straight, but if you keep feeding it in straight, they're just going to hit you to the leg side. So you try as a bowler, you try to not bowl to the man. You got to focus on yourself and execute because we're the, ultimately we are the ones in control because we are the ones delivering the ball, the batter has then react to what we do. So we're the one, in theory, if I nail my skill, I should win.

1:13:36Tymal Mills:It doesn't always work like that, but at least we're the ones in control of what we do as a bowler. And the skill you need now for that, let's just use again, like a last over, you're looking at bowling a mixture of back of the hand slow balls, you're looking at cutters, you're looking at like Yorkers. I mean, there's a lot of skill. A lot of options. To this, right? A lot of options as well. You need a lot of options. Yeah. So it's choosing the right option at the right time. You need luck as well. Like T20 cricket is a massive game of luck. I could bowl the same ball back to back. One could take a wicket and one could go for six because then it comes down to the batter's execution.

1:14:11I could bowl you a ball on the stumps and you could just miss it.

1:14:15Tymal Mills:And I look great. And I look great because I've taken a wicket or I could bowl that exact same ball and you can hit it for six. So cricket's a funny game. I've had some games where I've bowled rubbish and not executed where I wanted to execute, but you end up with four wickets because the batter hasn't quite timed it and you've got them caught out on the boundary somewhere. And then you'll have other games where you've bowled really well or feel you've bowled really well and the batter's just beaten you and you've been out-executed. And also the mentality of that is quite challenging because you probably can't be too self-critical to some extent.

1:14:46There's an element of the controllables you can control and then the things that are just part of the game. How do you compartmentalize that?

1:14:55Tymal Mills:That's really important. I think self-analysis, being honest with yourself in cricket and T20 cricket is really important because whether I have a good game or whether I have a bad game, I'll watch it back after. I'll watch my bowling back because in your mind's eye, it's often different to how it actually looks. You might think, I executed that really well, but then you watch it back and you think, actually no I missed you know I missed by half a foot and that's too much so that's a really important part of it being honest with yourself okay did I have a good performance there because I bowled well or was it because I got a bit lucky in the batter you know probably could have on another day got hit for six or likewise my figures are really bad today but did I actually execute really well or were my plans the right plans that's because that's one thing we speak about a lot in cricket is you can't always control the outcome, but you can control the process.

1:15:46Tymal Mills:And okay, have you set the right field? Is that the right plan to these conditions? And have you just lost out to the batter? That's really important in cricket because it's such a variable sport. A batter can, big swing of the bat and it's an edge and it goes over the keeper. That's not, you haven't done anything bad, that's just bad luck. And you've executed well, the batter's got the luck on that occasion, but it's gone down as four runs or six runs against you. And that's why I say context is so important within crickets. But yeah, self-analysis and honest self-reflection in cricket is massive.

1:16:18So the reason I asked you that question about the last over was because you put up something online not long ago about breaking down the anatomy of bowling a final over. And you've been doing a lot of work, or should we say what looks like an increasing amount of work away from the pitch, doing things with some really cool content. You've done some interesting partnerships that I'm sure you can bring up now. Why is it so important for you to be doing work alongside your cricket, away from the pitch, while you're still playing?

1:16:47Tymal Mills:I think it's important in all sport. I think you speak to people from all forms of sport, and it's the way the world is at the moment. It's people, if you want to, I want to be successful. I want to be a successful cricketer for as long as I can. And then whatever I do after cricket, I want to be successful, or as successful as I can be. I don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but I know I want to do cool things, go to cool places, meet cool people, be able to provide a good life for my family those are those are things i know i want to do and social media and the internet i think it's a huge part of it and i've i've always kept one eye on it so i've done commentary and broadcast work alongside playing pretty much my whole career so since i retired from four day cricket back in 2015 i've been doing commentary i work with the bbc a lot during the 100 on tv on the radio i've done work with sky talk sport those those companies because I've got time.

1:17:39Tymal Mills:You know, I'm not playing four-day cricket. I'm only playing T20, so I've got, I physically have the hours to go and do it. But, you know, it's not like I'm playing a four-day game and, you know, that takes up your whole week and then you're knackered and you don't want to do anything else. So I'm playing a T20. I might have three weeks off where there's no T20. I can go do a bit of broadcast work. But social media, probably not. I've just been a bit vanilla, you know, just done the bare minimum, you know, accepted the collaborative, you know, posts, you know, just the basic stuff. And, you know, my wife's always saying, you know you should do more you know your social media could be could be a lot better because i've i've never been one of the big names in cricket i haven't it's not like i've never had an england you know contract not an ipl regular you know these guys that have you know there's cricketers out there i've got millions of followers on on instagram and and it's you know it's achievable i've never been in that realm so for me to do something on social media needs to be impactful and worthwhile so um yeah to to what you alluded to obviously an opportunity came about with OnlyFans last year, which, yeah, took, as you can understand, I ummed and I'd have out for a while, but that kind of triggered and gave me a good, no excuse really to push what I'm doing on socials and just be brave really and try some new stuff.

1:18:51Tymal Mills:And this was a different type of OnlyFans content strategy, right? Very much so. To the one that everyone I'm sure is thinking about. Very much so, yes. It was all, so the deals I finished now, the contracts expired, But yeah, it was all obviously just safe work content. It came about my brother-in-law who runs an influencer marketing company, mainly in football, was working with OnlyFans to try and they wanted footballers on the platform, were struggling to do so. And then, you know, he put me forward and eventually kind of got in a meeting with the OnlyFans people, told them about cricket, what I do, where I go, kind of what the life looks like.

1:19:29Tymal Mills:They thought that sounds quite interesting. and yeah so i kind of eventually signed this deal with only fans to be their first cricketer endorsed uh athletes uh yeah sponsored by only fans but there's so much right behind the scenes that people will want to see now and that's if you're looking at where that type of partnership can go you can create content around your life that people don't see yet it's probably actually now some of the most interesting parts of being a professional sports person how do you train how do you eat what's the travel like where do you stay like especially when you're on the move except for so much of the year and you're going to some really cool places but then also it's like we just talked about again the anatomy of bowling like a death over you can go and explain it i've seen you do stuff highlights real and you'll talk people like through that over so an only fans deal opening up the industry to the work that you're doing and kind of giving a lens into that world, right?

1:20:32That's the next evolution of athletes really taking control of their own content.

1:20:38Tymal Mills:Yeah, and I think it's value added, isn't it? And it's trying to... Cricket's a bit behind, similar to, I'm sure, other sports in terms of it's quite a safe, you know, a bit backwards in terms of, you know, we're not pushing the envelope really or teams maybe are playing catch up now. But again, if I can try and be ahead of it and get ahead of the game in terms of what I'm producing and if people find it interesting, that's the main thing. And I think the low hanging fruit is the travel side of things because people travel. Travelling isn't that exotic really, but it's just, okay, it's tricky because you've got to be careful because there's always other people at stake.

1:21:20Tymal Mills:So I can't stick a camera in the changing room whilst we're having a team talk or whatever, because there's other people's, I can only speak for myself. I can't expose other people potentially or get other people in situations that they don't want to be in, but I can speak for myself. But it's just a case of being brave and putting myself out there and understanding what, you know, the repercussions are going to be and, you know, affiliating with OnlyFans, for example, I knew that there would be backlash on that side of things, but kind of weighing everything up and And also just being comfortable enough that I'm not doing anything untowards.

1:21:49Tymal Mills:I'm doing cricket content, lifestyle content. And I think the analysis stuff is probably the bit that I found was the most successful. Because we actually have really good access to our footage and we're allowed to share it. And talking through, because if I play a game on TV, you might do a flash interview after the game. You give pretty generic answers on TV. You could probably predict what I'm going to say before I'm going to say it. And then I'll go back into the changing room. but what I found was I actually really enjoyed it was okay open up my laptop playing the footage and talking about what I'm doing okay this was the scenario this was the equation they needed x off x I'm bowling at him and just talking and and trying to give a bit of insight into what we're actually thinking whilst we're out there and being honest and showing the bad as well as the good because it's easy it's easy for us to just put all the good stuff out there and how great we are but okay what happens when you get hit for six off that last ball and you lose a game what you're feeling um so um gonna now migrate and start doing stuff on youtube instead of only fans which is obviously behind a paywall but really grateful for that partnership because it gave me that kick up the ass really to confidence to yeah and just to do it and um you know i used i basically i used the money from only fans to help pay for you know team to help me and do the editing and all the stuff that I'd never do on my own and to make it look good and to take away the hard work of it and try and just make it, as I said, whatever I do, I want to do it well.

1:23:20Tymal Mills:And I want it to look good and look like it's not just been hashed together quickly on my iPhone whilst I'm on the train or something. But yeah, I'm excited about it and trying to just be brave and what's the worst that could happen. OnlyFans and Cricket aren't the most natural partners. what was it like when you announced the deal uh yeah so we announced so the timing not coincidentally was right at the start of the hundred last last year um and yeah so a lot of banter obviously between the boys uh i i i told a few of the guys that knew me knew i was you know i told them and like it was fine but then obviously we announced it on socials then obviously all the other players in the tournament and it was you know a lot of banter A lot of the, everything you'd expect out of, you know, all the questions that have been asked, I got asked.

1:24:08What's that group?

1:24:08Tymal Mills:Yeah, it was, you know, all the standard stuff. But yeah, it obviously rang some alarm bells at the ECB as well. I had some phone calls from those guys. Also, I'm not an England contracted player, so it wasn't like I didn't have to. So I spoke to Sussex because Sussex I am contracted by. They're my employers. They're the people that, as I said earlier, have looked after me for a long time. So I spoke to them beforehand to make sure that they were comfortable with it and they were great. sussex were outstanding the the then chief exec and the commercial officer were sweet they backed they backed me because end of the day they knew i'm not doing anything on the channel that's going to cause anybody any problems that's the fundamental you know that's the bottom line um but yeah and yeah when we announced it with the hundred yeah that that morning of our first game i had quite a few phone calls from from the ecb and and various different people yeah wanting clarification uh and yeah maybe flapping flapping a little bit but i'm just picturing the boardroom when the message comes through in the powers of being cricket me I was wearing OnlyFans hoodie cricket bat, sticker you know OnlyFans on my bat but the stick is the one thing you said that that's the thing that you have to negotiate or that's the say that they're allowed to have or that they do have over what you do advertise and what you don't yeah so cricket is very limited in terms of what you're allowed you're not allowed you know a UFC fighter can slap labels all over his shorts and whatever his own personal sponsors can't he or a boxer or whoever but cricket we only have one thing and it's this you can have a sticker on the back of your cricket bat that's your only advertising space really um and yeah i didn't realize you actually had to get approval for that because it's kind of an unwritten or an un it's not a rule that gets forced through in terms of because most of you know it's because normally insurers and stuff don't require or something you know it's normally pretty friendly so um yeah i had to take the sticker off the the back of my bat the ecb asked me to take the sticker off um because it goes against the values of the competition etc etc which was fine no you know no no complaints from my side understood took the sticker off and and that was pretty much as far as it went and like all these things it's it's news one day for a couple of days and then you know it's it's fish and chip paper in in the days after can we finish off on like last section of you what you got now coming up in the summer you're still very much playing all right none of this i want it to seem like it's kind of fading out you fit yes which is really important, touch wood, always.

1:26:31You've got another, you signed a two-year deal again.

1:26:34Tymal Mills:Yep, so two years of my Sussex contract. So we've got the Blast that's still a major feature. And also we've got the 100. And there's so much about the 100. This is the first year that we're playing, or the 100 is playing with new investment, which has obviously been massively talked about. But you've been in it literally since the first iteration. You won the first title with Southern Brave. You're the leading wicket taker in the 100. From a player's perspective, how have you kind of enjoyed approach the competition. I've loved it. And I think 90 % of the players would say they've loved it as well.

1:27:04Tymal Mills:I saw Jimmy Anderson did a quote not so long ago saying he hated every second of it, which obviously got a lot of traction. You wouldn't expect anything else. I know. And that's fine. It isn't for everybody, clearly. But I know a lot of the players, obviously we love it because the pay is good and the pay is extra money that wouldn't have been there otherwise. Let's just be honest. We're getting paid more to play in another competition in the height of our summer, in front of great crowds. And there's not many negatives from my point of view from a player if you're involved. Obviously, the players that aren't involved in 100 might look at it and think it's rubbish because they haven't been able to access it.

1:27:37Tymal Mills:But pretty much every game I've been at for five years has been at least 70 % full, if not sold out. At Southern Bravia, we had a great attendance. The women's games were largely sold out even before our games in the evening. I've broadcast on games as well as playing and being around the ground. So many kids are there. and I understand it takes away a chunk of the summer that other people want to see used for other forms of cricket but as somebody who's been involved in it and actively been involved in it and played in it it's comparable to other high level T20 tournaments I've played in around the world that unfortunately the Blast just can't replicate just with how stretched out it is with 18 Blast teams you can't replicate the quality that you can with 8 teams you condense the talent you funnel everything into something a bit more condensed and you can't televise the blast.

1:28:24Tymal Mills:You can televise every game of the 100, etc. So I understand how it's not for everybody. It's not that different to T20 once you start. That first year, we all came into it like, okay, what is this going to be like? We're all five ball overs. We're not changing ends after the first five. We're staying there. And everyone thought it's going to be alien. But actually, once we played maybe two games, you actually pick it up pretty quickly and everyone now is pretty seamless in how they go about it. And you played, as I said, Southern Brave all the time up to this year. Yeah. And then now you've just been signed by London Spirit.

1:28:57Yes. It's down the road.

1:28:58Tymal Mills:Yes. So the hundreds. So I played for Southern Brave for five years and I loved it. And I'd have happily gone back. We were successful. So basically us and Overland Invincible were probably the two best teams over the five years. Overland Invincible were the best team. We were probably the second best. And that's because they nailed the year one. It was just a complete open slate draft your team. And we drafted really well. And as a result, we kept our team together because we did well. Nobody wanted to leave. And we kept the core of our team together. Other teams, they had a lot of churn, a lot of change in those five years.

1:29:29Tymal Mills:And we're always kind of chasing it, whereas we were able to keep our team together. But this year, with all the new investment, all the teams with new ownerships, there was a natural, obviously, time to reset things. So each team could only go into the auction with four players, essentially two retentions and two signings. I wasn't retained or signed by Southern Brave. You couldn't be signed by another domestic team. you can only be retained by your current team or go back in the auction so um yeah i ended up back in the auction a couple of months ago now which was a horrible day actually i hated it it was i've been in i've been a lot of auctions that have gone well i've been in a lot of gone badly and yeah it was a tough day it was a long day i came up late in the auction and um but explain how it works because it's you know the structure of that you have players 50 top players right and then there's different like categories yeah so the auction day itself is a long it was all day and yeah they kind of ranked or it was done on like a nomination system so like the the first there was the top 50 players obviously came up first and when that list came out i wasn't a part of it and yeah i had my nose put out a little bit if i'm being honest leading wicket taker in that yeah i was i was a bit you know a bit upset and a bit a bit frustrated spoke to my agent about it you know typical agent just trying to calm you down you know it'll play out yeah yeah yeah um but still it was it was a tough day but obviously i knew i wasn't in that first 50 But then after that, it's kind of done behind the scenes and you're not quite sure when you're going to come out after that first 50.

1:30:54Tymal Mills:So the morning was fine and I watched it in the gym or wherever I was and watched guys go, you know, various prices. And then you're just kind of then waiting all afternoon for your face to appear at the bottom of the screen. And it just took a while and it got to the mid-afternoon. I'm still not coming up and I'm panicking, I think, because obviously by this time teams are punching players and their purses are going down and other bowlers are being signed. and you don't know, you know, you've got no idea how it's going to go. And then eventually I came up and yeah, so it was London Spirit and Manchester Originals bid for me and then yeah, so I ended up with London Spirit and yeah, can't wait.

1:31:30Tymal Mills:I think they put together a really strong side and yeah, can't wait for the middle of July to roll around. How does it compare playing 100 and Blast? Because you've now pretty much got those right from, what, Blast starts next week, next week, week Friday. So this Friday when this will probably release. does it kind of feel like one continuation yeah it does yeah so it's yeah it's just a summer of cricket now so i've got i still love playing in the blast because so i'm captain for sussex this is my 12th season at the club i live in hove it's it's home you know i said i was there this morning i'm there most days of the week training and it's one competition i've never won lost lost in the final lost in a few semi-finals so i'd loved before i stopped playing to win the blast for Sussex.

1:32:13Tymal Mills:So I still, I have a vested interest in Sussex, so it still means a lot to me. And it's great as I get to be at home, I'm sleeping in my own bed, I'm still taking my kids to school, kids can come watch, you know, the afternoon games that we have. And it's really nice. And then that then leads into the 100, which is a bigger, kind of bigger deal broadly, like widely. I know if I do well in the 100, that will help for franchise stuff in the winter. There's more eyeballs on it your teams are now owned by uh you know ipl teams or powerful people you know the the guys that own london spirit are you know microsoft and adobe these really cool you know people from another world that you're going to get to meet and interact with and open up a few more doors hopefully um yeah it's just the english summer is you know it's the highlight of my year because it's i get the best of both worlds i get to be at home um for the most part in my own bed as I said with my kids around and just have a good you know good fun and then still play high quality cricket and then in the winter go off and see what happens it's made the splash it you know it needed to do you think the 100 becomes eventually England's T20 IPM and do you think it goes to 20 maybe I don't know I don't I personally as a player don't see the need to I think the one thing it would make it tricky would be it works really well at the moment because you have the women's games and the men's game so you have a women's match normally in the afternoon and then the men's match in the evening or the women on the weekend play like late morning and in the afternoon that works really well time-wise because obviously a game of the 100 is shorter than a game of t20 by by nature so i don't know how it would work if all of a sudden you changed it to t20 because that that makes a longer day longer broadcasting day you know longer day for for everybody whereas the 100 does work pretty well from a time frame point of view so I'll be interested to see what they do with that so it'd be a shame if they split the men's and the women's competitions up because I feel that's the one thing that they they stumbled across it that was never the plan but because of COVID and they needed to condense everything a bit easier having the women's games and the men's games together has worked really well like we get to know the women's team better I know more about women's cricket now than I did before the 100 because you're around it more.

1:34:26Tymal Mills:You watch, so say, you obviously get to the ground and watch the end of the women's game because you're straight on after. As soon as that women's game's finished, you're on the pitch to warm up for your game. So there's that synergy there. You're in the hotel with the women, like Southern Brave, the Southern Brave women were excellent. And quite often they'd play, they'd win, and then they'd sit up in the changing room, you know, on the beers, watching us. And then after the game, hopefully we'd win and then you'd be in the hotel bar and stuff. And it was nice. It created a nice atmosphere. So I hope they don't change it from that point of view because these people that have bought the teams, they've bought two teams.

1:35:00Tymal Mills:They've bought the women's team and the men's team. It's not just the men's products or just the women's products. So I hope it stays at the 100, but I think it's still a couple more years left on the broadcast cycle where things stay in place, but I've got no idea. Do you think the international players from the ones that you've spoken to, you said you like loads, love it, from an international standpoint, the ones that are moving around, are they enjoying it the same? Similarly, so I said how I love the SA20 because going to South Africa for four weeks in the summer is amazing. Foreign players love coming to England.

1:35:33Tymal Mills:You said it, not me. But London, for example, you're not going to find too many guys from South Africa or Australia say, I'll come to London for four weeks to play in the 100. Guys love coming to England in July and August and traveling around and playing cricket. It's still a desirable thing for most people to do. So, yeah, you know, we're not going to struggle to get good quality overseas, especially now the money's gone up as well from all the new investments. So I don't see it taking a backward step in that regard. So, you know, I mean, all of this put together is incredible. It's a very, very different type of story.

1:36:05It's a different story coming into cricket in the first place. And then it's a very different story having to pivot and be a relatively early adopter of, shall we say, a more focused and targeted professional career. While that may have been really cool, you know, I've no doubt that has presented lots of different challenges. what now you know as you kind of you're 33 years old you've got multiple interests different passions you got family like what's the plan i want to play for as long as possible that's

1:36:30Tymal Mills:i still love playing because i'm because at some point and for a lot of people it becomes a job and it becomes a chore but i still love it i still love standing at the top of my mark in control of my own destiny and i say that sounds a bit cheesy but those moments when you win a game I bowl that last over and defend a score or I take that wicket to remove a batter I know I will never get those moments again when I retire so as soon as I stop playing that part of my life stops and hopefully you can replicate it elsewhere but I want to play for as long as possible and also financially my earning potential won't be as high well hopefully it is but probably won't be as high as what it is as a player and I want to capitalise on both of them as possible I'm a typical sportsman I want to have my cake and eat it too I want to play at the highest level do all these amazing things take my family around with me where I can let them see these cool things you know start doing other things around it I want to do it all and I think you can if you know if you've got a good support network around you and spoke about my wife earlier and you know she plays a massive part in that and supporting me whilst also trying to advance her own career and it's hard but no I want to play I want to play until the wheels fall off until I can't play anymore or until an opportunity presents to me that's too good to turn down.

1:37:43Tymal Mills:And hopefully I'm putting myself in a situation where off the field, you know, I won't be struggling. When I stop playing cricket, I'll have something immediately to build upon or to work towards or I've met. I think with cricket, we're so fortunate we meet a lot of cool people around the world. It's such a global game. You never know who you'll meet in what pocket of the world who could lead you into something, you know, down the line that you know because i'll be retired at some point before i'm 40 i'd imagine and then i've got a long time to do something else and you never know that person will highly likely come from my cricketing network who's the most surprising cricket fan you've met oh you you didn't know you so so passionate about when you replied to my message like yeah i absolutely love it i absolutely love it it is the sport i think um it's a sport that if you if you like it you love it yeah like it's because it's so unique and intricate and there's so much, there's so many intricacies to it.

1:38:43Tymal Mills:If you meet a cricket fan, they're mad about it. You don't get many casual cricket fans, I don't think. No, but I also, I've become very aware, like recently, I was lucky enough to grow up playing cricket. Yeah. Like I played it all the time. Yeah. I was lucky enough to get that exposure and you definitely take that for granted if you just had it and done it. Sure. And it was when my wife, who loves cricket now, but like that was kind of a late thing in the last like seven, eight years, probably because she had to put up with the amount of times it was on the TV. But, you know, whether it's women not getting the same access that we had.

1:39:19And she just said, you know, she was she was going through BBC commentary and the comment. Like it was so advanced as in the words they were using, how the language was being put forward. It was like, if I'm just coming to the game, if I don't know what a Yorker is or a Googler.

1:39:34Tymal Mills:So I worked with the BBC. So during the 100, when the 100 started, every game's on Sky, and then the BBC have a free-to-air package, 10 games maybe. So I've been broadcasting with the BBC around my playing commitments. And especially in those early, those couple of years, we were literally walked through how we needed to explain everything and strip it back. Because going to free-to-air and new audience, that was it. So things that we take for granted as cricket people that we assume everybody knows, most people won't know. So when you're talking about fielding positions, you're having to explain what it is.

1:40:08Tymal Mills:You're talking about the offside, the leg side. You need to explain what that is. And it took a while to get used to, but... Even as you were saying, it's like, oh, yeah, no, we're bowling, we want to have four slits in the gully. And we go, yeah, yeah, yeah. There'll be people listening to this going, what's that? But that is a really important part of the development of the game. just by making it more accessible both to play, to understand, to watch. And, you know, yeah, from my side, I think, you know, when you do have that kind of exposure when you're young, it's great. You get into it. I mean, Test Match Cricket to me is still I will sit down and watch five days of it.

1:40:43Tymal Mills:If you get an enthralling game of Test Cricket, it trumps any T20 game. Even now, like, I miss not so at Sussex, they obviously play Championship Cricket, four-day cricket. When they come off if they've won on that day four, they've bowled a team out in the last session on day four, that's one thing that I'll never be able to replicate in a T20 game because you've worked, you know, for four days with your mates, your body's hurting. And, you know, those beers you have in the changing room, they're the best beers you'll ever have, you know? And that's, I'll go in just for those beers. So I'll be watching on the stream or whatever and I'll say, okay, the boys have just won.

1:41:20Tymal Mills:I'm going to go and, you know, have a beer with them in the changing room because that's one thing, because not many sports test you for that long and that's why it's called test cricket but you know the payoff and the reward of long form cricket is still something that you know as a short form player I wish I still had that little bit of taste you did play your first four day game recently didn't you in a long time was that no I played I bowled four overs in a game so it was a pre-season friendly I was in to train and have a bowl but it rained so I couldn't bowl so I said oh can I get the lights on and bowl in the game because it's a friendly you can just hop in so I literally I bowled four overs and then walked straight off the field and went home.

1:41:56Saw one, nipped back in, big time. Yeah. People want to know what that means.

1:42:01Tymal Mills:Sorry, nipped back in. Yeah, exactly. Started outside off, came in, oh, it was good. Again, it's very easy to talk about these different formats of cricket and it's very easy to just talk about players and going, oh, you know, moving for the money and protecting certain formats and doing all of this. But, you know, as with everything, I think it's really important to understand that outside of the top top, right, this is a job as well. So hearing that from you is really cool and really good. and even just see you doing those different things. OnlyFans, as I said, laugh because of the name and then you understand actually what it's about and the importance of athletes doing that now more and putting themselves in a window for longevity beyond those playing days.

1:42:40Tymal Mills:And hopefully now that it's not behind a paywall on OnlyFans and hopefully I'll get a real understanding now if people want to see it. Yeah, and YouTube's a great way to do that. Yeah, so we'll see. So when is it? YouTube this summer? soon next couple of weeks I think yeah I think we're launching end of May it's the first episode we'll share some content but no in all seriousness thank you thank you it's really really cool to do it with you and I'm so pleased that you enjoy the show firstly as Natalie it's partly meant for people like you so it's really great to have you on and looking forward to watching you out throughout the rest of summer thanks for having me on I've really enjoyed it thank you so much to Tamal for joining us it was awesome to hear that he was a fan of the show which is what kicked off our conversation it is even better to hear about how he's developing his life off the pitch the cricket story is special but the broader narrative is one we will likely see more of as athletes take more ownership of their careers beyond the game i had a lot of fun doing this and i hope you enjoyed the show too now if you want to see more from today's show you can do so by going to youtube or any of our other social channels across instagram and tiktok there are more snippets to share and bite-sized chunks to consume and whilst you're there please do like subscribe and follow the show as you will hear from your other favourite pods, it makes a huge difference when bringing you the best guests and conversations from the world of sports, which is, of course, our endless aim.

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