The paradox of plenty: How cricket and content creation share similar growing pains

It's Thursday morning in Connecticut, early Friday in Melbourne, and approaching beer o'clock in Manchester. With several cricket columns waiting in draft, today's post will head in a different direction—one coloured with the brush of reflection.

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Mornings have changed for me, waking up a day behind Melbourne and a few hours behind the UK, making it feel like I'm the middle part of a sandwich.

First, messages: did the possums come back? How are the Cats (cricket) doing? Ollie Peake is off to Sri Lanka on a work experience venture—what an opportunity! Then to email: the UK newsletters are making more sense. Here, President Trump dominates the news—so be it. And then infrequently, there's that magical email from Substack titled, "New subscriber to SpeakingNick!"—the perfect boost to start the day.

My little corner of the internet, njspeak.substack.com, is just that, little. But it's growing. Not exponentially, just nicely. So, I wanted to share some thoughts and insights on that, and some cricket.

The owners of Substack remain adamant about the importance of creators having their own space on the internet, rather than relying solely on social media platforms. When they refer to 'creators', they mean writers. I see myself as neither, well, less creator and more writer. Somebody who played cricket and is now coaching. A student of the game; student of sport, a people-watcher—they call this a 'profiler'.

Anyways, as a Substack writer, you do have ownership and control over your copy, URL, website, and subscriber/reader list, which, they say, is a key advantage over social media platforms where you do not own the audience data or have control over rules and algorithms.

I used to enjoy Twitter/X. My crew hung out there, and you could easily reach others outside your circle. It was a semi-reliable source of cricket/sports news. Friends and strangers would comment on your good and bad work because they saw your tweets, and the link to your site worked! Then, the platform's owner got the shits, throwing his toys from his oversized cot. Substack writers suffered—still. The links are working again, but nobody sees your tweets if the algorithm detects a connection to Substack. In my limited social media wisdom, I've tried every way known to bypass the wretched (want to swear) algorithm, to no avail. I have had so many messages from friends asking if I stopped writing!

Some teammates refused to acknowledge that I could put 1000 words together to form a reasonable print opinion—understandable. But I did, and do, and some say it's not too bad. (If only I could link to testimonials! Please leave a comment, good or bad, no problem.)

Many argue cricket is at complete saturation. You only have to look at India, just back from an arduous tour of Australia, and now hosting England in an inconspicuous T20 and ODI series.

On his Cricverse Substack, Simon Hughes points to both a current abundance of cricket opportunities afforded to players and a disconnect with fans; there's a paradox worth exploring. With its countless tournaments, franchise leagues and loaded schedules, the game's expansion raises quantifiable questions about sustainable growth versus oversaturation.

The India vs England series merely meets media agreements.

Cricket's explosive expansion through broadcast rights and year-round scheduling is nearing a tipping point. The challenge is controlling the volume of cricket played while preserving the game's integrity for consumers and fans. It's ensuring every match maintains its soul, like each written word, carries meaning and connects with its audience.

SpeakingNick remains far from saturation, unlike cricket's current trajectory. While the game grapples with finding its sweet spot between commercial success and sporting authenticity, I am still discovering my voice, one subscriber at a time. There's a lesson here: sustainable growth, whether in cricket or content creation, isn't about maximising volume—it's about maintaining quality and meaningful connections.

Sometimes less is more. I'll keep writing, watching, and connecting—one story at a time, one subscriber to the next, while cricket searches for its equilibrium.

I enjoyed the read, Yozz. Thanks for the leg-up.