Maitlan Brown: Sydney Sixers star goes viral on Instagram, Youtube channels

This WBBL cricketer is fast becoming one of the most watched Aussie sportspeople online and her social media empire started in the most bizarre way.

About four years ago, cricketer Maitlan Brown headed out to a farm in regional New South Wales with her farrier father so she could get a closer look at what he did while on the job.

On this particular day, her father needed to remove the plaque from a horse’s tooth and it was … well, kinda gross.

Brown saw her opportunity: this moment was like one of those “pimple popping” moments, so she pulled out her mobile phone and filmed a short clip of her dad as he went about his job removing the plaque.

It was only 24 seconds of vision, but nonetheless, she posted it to video-sharing site, YouTube.

And then, she forgot about it.

Maitlan Brown has found a huge following online.

A screenshot from the horse plaque removal video Brown shared to Youtube.

WATCH THE VIDEO WHICH SENT HER VIRAL HERE

Watch every game of the Weber WBBL Live & On-Demand on Kayo or catch up for FREE with minis on Kayo Freebies. Join Kayo Now >

But about six months ago, she started getting lots of emails from YouTube, and in an effort to figure out why, Brown logged onto her four-year-old video and much to her surprise, she found it had gone viral.

Today, that short video has had a staggering 80 million views worldwide.

And in that moment she’s realised something which was quite important: as a cricketer, she has a platform.

Brown, a new recruit for the Sydney Sixers in the Women’s Big Bash League, is among today’s modern athletes who can use their profile as cricketers – and in Brown’s case, her vivacious personality as well – to launch themselves on social media.

Maitlan Brown’s infectious personality is hard to ignore.

About six weeks ago, the 24-year-old Brown created her own YouTube channel.

She already has 48,500 subscribers and is posting videos showing life on tour and the funny games she plays with teammates.

She has also posted a video documenting her year-long recovery from a serious hamstring injury suffered in 2020 that required surgery after she tore the muscle from her bone.

She says the YouTube channel allows her to show a new dimension of who she is to the world, instead of Maitlan Brown, the cricketer.

“I try to film the off-field and behind-the-scenes moment,” the fast bowler says.

“Everyone can see what we do on the field, and then maybe a little bit of training stuff here and there, so this is more about showing that we’re more than cricketers, I would say, that’s the whole idea behind it.

“I had a really nice message from a young girl when I released a video talking about my rehab journey … she sent me a message saying that she was going through an ACL reconstruction and she found my videos inspiring to be able to relate to someone who’s gone through the same thing.

“That’s so rewarding and not necessarily what I expected from the video.”

And there is an increasing appetite from social media consumers for the content that the athletes produce.

Maitlan Brown has become one of the must-follow cricketers in Australia.

Platform Twitter, released exclusive figures to NewsCorp this week, which showed a dramatic increase in cricket-related Tweets.

The platform has seen more than 537,000 cricket-related Tweets sent since the beginning of the year. Since the start of the cricket season – which saw Australia take on India in a multi-format series – there has been an 85 per cent increase in September and October in the number of cricket-related conversations on the platform compared with the two months prior (July and August).

And looking at those specific two-month’s worth of conversations in September and October, there has been a whopping 276 per cent increase in women’s cricket-related Tweets.

According to Twitter, their latest sports fan research shows that 84 per cent of sports fans use Twitter to follow a women’s league, while nearly two-thirds agree they want to see more exposure of women’s sport.

Which is what the likes of Brown – and the multitudes of women cricketers who use social media – are able to leverage.

Brown said it was good for fans of cricket to be able to see the athletes as people, with different interests, away from the pitch, with Brown using her Instagram account to document her creations as an industrial designer.

“When you’re always in the cricket world as an athlete, it can be really overwhelming, so it is really nice to have something separate from that, that is completely out of that world to recharge the batteries almost and so that you feel like you’re not just a cricketer,” she says.

Ellyse Perry has more than one million followers on her Facebook page. Picture: GETTY

Top 5 most talked-about Aussie female cricketers on Twitter from January 1-November 1, 2021:

1. Alyssa Healy

2. Ellyse Perry

3. Rachael Haynes

4. Darcie Brown

5. Hannah Darlington

A snapshot of the social media reach of the WBBL’s cricketers:

Strikers fast bowler Megan Schutt. Picture: GETTY

Adelaide Strikers:

Megan Schutt, bowler, 28

Schutt not only Tweets about cricket, but also about equality and fairness and has recently publicly documented her journey into motherhood, after welcoming a baby with wife, Jess, through IVF. She has more than 64,900 followers on Twitter.

Brisbane Heat:

Poonam Yadav, bowler, 30

The tricky spin bowler has more than 101,000 followers on her Instagram page, where she posts photos from her cricket adventures across the globe.

Tayla Vlaeminck in action during this season of the WBBL. Picture: GETTY

Hobart Hurricanes:

Tayla Vlaeminck, bowler, 23

The young quick has a social media following without being prolific on social media. Despite never having sent out a Tweet, she has 624 follower on Twitter, and despite only having posted six photos to Instagram, has 9,125 followers on that platform.

Melbourne Renegades:

Harmanpreet Kaur, all-rounder, Indian captain, 32

Kaur regularly “tweets” on the Twitter platform, detailing her life on the road with the Indian team, as well as inspirational quotes to her followers. She has more than 391,400 followers on Twitter.

Melbourne Stars:

Meg Lanning, batter, Australian captain, 29

Lanning has a public Facebook page, where she shares a lot of information about the charity work she does. Her page has more than 316,000 followers.

Perth Scorchers:

Beth Mooney, batter, 27

Mooney has 31,100 followers on her Instagram page, where she posts photos from her travels with cricket, and her beloved dog, Ruby.

Harmanpreet Kaur of the Melbourne Renegades. Picture: GETTY

Sydney Sixers:

Ellyse Perry, all-rounder, 31

Facebook: Perry, who is widely regarded as one of the best all-rounders in the history of the game, has an incredible global reach, and for her public athlete page on Facebook (managed by the Lampoon Group) has more than 1.4 million followers.

Sydney Thunder:

Smriti Mandhana, batter, 25

The Indian import is enjoying WBBL07 in new colours with the Thunder after two previous seasons with the Heat. On Instagram, Mandhana has 5.2 million followers from across the world.

WBBL RISING STAR CHASES OLYMPIC DREAM

— Ben Horne

Jeff Thomson threw away the javelin to pursue a career in cricket but rising WBBL star Kate Peterson believes she can juggle both she chases Olympic gold.

As well as her dream to one day bowl for Australia, Peterson also has one eye on a bold ambition to represent her country in javelin at the Brisbane Games in 2032.

The Sydney Thunder star was a junior javelin prospect well on her way to national selection before she focused her energies on cricket. But the 18-year-old believes there might be a way to combine her two loves as Ellyse Perry famously did early in her career as a dual international in football.

Catch all the ICC T20 World Cup action live & exclusive to Fox Cricket, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today.

Kate Peterson has ambitions to throw javelin for Australia at Brisbane Olympics.

With the Gabba set to host track and field at the Olympics, Peterson might have even more reason to feel comfortable, and on the eve of this WBBL season she received a message of encouragement from Tokyo javelin finalist, McKenzie Little, which has further inspired her to shoot for the stars.

“Watching the Olympics that just went past and seeing the three Aussie girls all make the final, it was so exciting. I’ve competed against some of them before so just seeing what they’ve been able to do and having the announcement of the Olympics coming to Brisbane, it would be amazing to be able to get there one day,” Peterson told News Corp.

“It’s definitely something that could work and that I will look into … it would take a lot of work but (I don’t feel it would) take a lot of time out of my cricket.

“It was pretty special having a message from McKenzie just saying that she knows I’m doing well on the field and is loving seeing me continue my career, but that it’d be great to see me pick up a javelin again one day. Hopefully I can do that.”

Thrust straight into the WBBL after graduating from high school last year, Peterson is a quality swing bowler – who unsurprisingly possesses a rocket arm from the boundary on account of her javelin pedigree.

Peterson has been setting the WBBL alight with her bowling and fielding. Picture: Getty Images

Test legend Thomson also had a background in javelin which heavily influenced his no-jump run-up, something Richie Benaud felt was what gave him his extra pace.

Now a full-time professional cricketer with South Australia and the Thunder, Peterson has started to warm into her career this summer with three WBBL games so far and a maiden wicket against the Melbourne Renegades.

There’s nothing pie in the sky about her Olympic javelin dreams either, with the athletics guru who developed the national ranking system for Australia’s junior track and field athletes confirming Peterson is the real deal – as she sat just outside the top 10 last year for national throwers under 20.

Jeff Thompson’s history with javelin heavily influenced his no-jump run-up.

“She threw 45.14 metres with a 500-gram javelin as a 17-year-old, and that’s very, very good,” said Athletics Australia life member and long-term official, David Tarbottom.

“That distance would be very close to getting onto a national podium, but it also shows she had the potential to do something at a high level.

“Looking at her performances, they indicate to me she had the ability and the potential, to represent Australia at some level.”

But Peterson is firmly focused on her No. 1 goal of playing for Australia in cricket, and credited her Thunder teammates and South Australian national stars Tahlia McGrath and Megan Schutt for helping her overcome early-career nerves on the WBBL big stage.

“It’s made me really excited to see where I could potentially get to in the future if I put the work in,” she said.

“Becoming a full time cricketer now it’s just really escalated my love even more for cricket and I definitely have the ambitions of reaching (Australia).”