The Grade Cricketer
February 10, 2017
BG: The Grade Cricketer, thanks for your time.
BG: This social media phenomenon that you have begun has in-excess of 50,000 Facebook fans and 50,000 Twitter followers. How did the idea of starting this identity come about?
TGC: The Grade Cricketer is essentially the creative project of three guys: Dave Edwards, Sam Perry and Ian Higgins. We wanted to satirise the hard-nosed brand of amateur/grade cricket here in Australia, while highlighting all its absurdities. These insights were mainly borne from our collective three decades of playing cricket at junior, club and grade level.
The actual inspiration for the character came about in 2012, when Sam wrote an ‘instructional guide’ on how to succeed in grade cricket for a now-defunct blog. The piece garnered a surprising amount of traffic and led him to launch the Twitter account. Dave and Ian joined in soon after – and the rest is history: we’re all now millionaires living in glorious harbourside mansions with open floor plan interiors.
BG: When beginning your social media networks, were your intentions purely to have a laugh with your mates about local cricket dilemmas, or did you always hope to become a famous media figure?
TGC: The main intention at the start was always to shine a light on the dysfunctional aspects of grade cricket – and male behaviour in general. Like, when a 42-year-old man sledges a 15-year-old to the brink of tears, that’s funny to some – but it’s also deeply heartbreaking. When a player gets mocked for not joining in the post-match team shower, there’s probably something wrong with that, too.
In Australian cricket – not just amateur level, but at the top, too – there seems to be this belief that you must always portray the most alpha version of yourself at possible, at all times. You can never appear weak and vulnerable, or ‘soft’. In grade cricket, everything needs to be hard. You need to ‘work hard’, hit the ball hard, sledge hard. Never smart, always hard.
The beauty of The Grade Cricketer is that he allows us to say all the things that actual cricketers would never say publicly. Cricket is such a mentally demanding sport and it’s difficult to maintain that confident, jocular veneer when you know (and everyone else knows) you’re averaging 11.34. But maintain it you will. We derive great joy from exploring these types of local cricket dilemmas.
And it’s cool being a famous media figure too, if you want to call us that.
BG: You post a range of humorous content daily that is relatable to your average park cricketer, but how do the fresh ideas continue to arise?
TGC: We have a Whatsapp group where we share ideas for tweets. We obviously have shared access to the Twitter and Facebook accounts, so we’ll just throw something up if it makes us laugh. Perhaps the idea is triggered by a real-life experience (i.e. getting champed by a barista for ordering a weak soy latte) a flashback to our youth (i.e. getting ‘mankaded’ in a in U14 rep game), or something more broadly topical (the horrifying rise of Trump). If there’s something particularly risqué, we might put it on the Whatsapp group to get some feedback and hone accordingly, but we trust each other when it comes to the content.
Furthermore, we each take 13 trips to the toilet each work day to brainstorm interesting tweets/status updates. We’ve lost four jobs between us because of it, but it’s been worth it for the RT’s. The bathroom breaks are becoming longer and longer as we slowly realise we’re running out of material. Dave spent 14 days in the cubicle last year during a particularly nasty bout of writers’ block.
BG: Along with the articles, you have released a book, as well as hour-long podcast episodes. Did you ever dream of having the success that has come from The Grade Cricketer, in so many different forms?
TGC: We never really dreamed of this success, as you’ve put it – mainly because we’re too busy dreaming about being timed out, or getting run out coming back for the third.
Of all the various platforms on which The Grade Cricketer exists, we’re probably most proud of the book. The ‘published author’ status has afforded us a certain credibility that three blokes from the internet wouldn’t necessarily get, nor have dreamt of getting.
It was a massive buzz to have Thomas Keneally (perhaps Australia’s most well-respected novelist) endorse our book and give it some literary cred. From a sales perspective, we’re told that it out-sold Michael Clarke’s autobiography, but we’re not sure that’s necessarily something to brag about. Although it’s amusing that a faux-autobiography of a fictional grade cricketer out sold an actual autobiography by the Australian test captain.
BG: These podcasts feature a range of cricketers each week. Has it been difficult getting the calibre of players onto your show?
TGC: It has been quite challenging at times, for sure. Not every professional cricketer past and present is aware of The Grade Cricketer, believe it or not. We’ve leant on our existing networks a bit, plus Fox Sports has assisted us in lining up some of their own talent. The rest of the time we just chanced our arm with a cheeky, yet vulnerable ‘DM’ via Twitter. We’re still waiting for Darren Lehmann to reply to us. Any danger, Boof?
BG: Your page has been of such great success that you have began writing for Fox Sports. How did this opportunity surface and what is your approach to writing these pieces?
TGC: Basically, we approached Fox Sports to gauge their interest in backing a podcast. Part of the deal here was that we would also write a weekly article in character for them. They wanted us to drive traffic to their website, basically. Like with the book, we split the responsibility of writing these articles. We generate the ideas either via Skype or Whatsapp, then we write our respective parts, then piece it all together at the end. It sounds needlessly complex, but it’s actually pretty easy – we’re all on the same page humour-wise, having developed and honed this character over a 4-5-year period.
BG: The popularity of this figure was unforseen. What do you think attracts such a large audience to The Grade Cricketer?
TGC: The idea of the character is that he is an ‘everyman’ – any cricketer can see themselves, or aspects of themselves, in him. Grade cricket is entirely homogenous; every club has a ‘chop king’, a few rare units, an eccentric groundsman, a divorced millionaire club president – and a handful of first graders who look over your shoulder when you’re talking to them.
On the other hand, The Grade Cricketer also has a dark edge to it that other satirical characters lack. Cricket really does lend itself to introspection and self-analysis – and, consequently, self-loathing/defeat. Until The Grade Cricketer came along, many of these inner thoughts were exactly that: inner thoughts. We simply vocalised the fears and anxieties of cricketers in general. Everyone is scared of failure – that’s a universal thing – but failure is just so commonplace in cricket. And life.
BG: With the severe amount of work needing to be put into this character, has it become your full time focus, or are you managing to juggle it on the side?
TGC: It’s a side project, at least until someone buys us out for a very tidy sum. We’re often getting approached by scam artists on Facebook who want to ‘buy’ our page. Sometimes we’re tempted. It may surprise you that grade cricket humour is not a huge money spinner.
BG: The Grade Cricketer has had an incredible start to it’s career, but where can you see it going in the future? Is it set to grow bigger and better, or do you think you have already reached the maximum success?
TGC: Who knows? Perhaps it has peaked. That said, we do have a couple of creative ideas in the works. Can’t give much away yet because we’re still figuring it out, but hopefully The Grade Cricketer will still be relevant come Ashes 2017/18.
BG: Thanks very much for your fascinating insights and all the best for the future.
TGC: Our pleasure, Ben.