It’s fair to say that when Gideon and Sam set up this independent media publishing venture there was only a vague idea of how it would work. Gideon had left The Australian, I was set to follow and Sam wanted to make sure he and The Grade Cricketer kept writing.

In the time since we’ve been making it up as we go, but thanks to you we are finding our feet and thank you for your indulgence in that time. We’ve broken stories, we gave you an exclusive read of Gideon’s book My Brother Jaz, we’ve indulged ourselves with stories on punk music, plane spotting and the passing of Pete’s greengrocer.

Mostly we reckon we give you really good cricket content at a rate that even surprises us. We are having a great time.

On Friday October 25 the little counter in the corner of our Substack feed clicked over to 1000 paid subscribers. This was a significant landmark on our journey to making this thing work.

You cannot know how happy we are with support you have shown for our work and how critical that support is. Cricket creates community and that’s what you are helping us do here.

We love doing this and love it that you seem to enjoy it to.

Paid subscriptions will get us on the road for all five of the Border Gavaskar Trophy Test matches this summer. And we want to keep out there covering cricket where it is played as much as is possible.

Listeners to our podcasts while we were in India and England last year know how much we enjoy being out there.

We’ve been operating on the smell of an oily cricket bat until now, but have to get serious. Gideon’s got a cat to feed, I’m going to need a new pair of undies for the summer, and Sam’s told us he will not be staying in the student rooms at Aquinas College so we are going to have to find him something more befitting his expectations.

You probably know by now that we are reluctantly moved to a model on November 1 where ONLY paid subscribers get ALL of our content. It’s Craig Serjeant Day! And if you’d like to learn more on that subject, start here…..

Unpaid subscribers will still get some, but not the daily reporting from the game.

Those who are paid subscribers will not be affected and will continue to pay at the same rate.

From November 1 the monthly rate will rise to $20. Let me emphasise that if you are on the current lower rate that does not change.

Even if you only subscribe for the two months of the Border Gavaskar Trophy it is $40 for what promises to be a comprehensive and exhaustive effort from us.

Covering cricket is an expensive task.

Subscribing also means we can keep the wolf from the door without accepting money from the pernicious betting agencies that supports almost every sports media outlet in the country.

The Cricket Et Al podcast remains will still be free (talk is cheap).

Why Cricket Et Al?  The title is an evolution. When Pete and I were podcasting, The Australian christened it Cricket Et Cetera - to which we offered the pedantic objection that it implied cricket and more cricket, for which neither of us was up, being at least as interested in what we were reading, watching and listening to.  So Cricket Et Al, short for alia: that is, cricket and others - other abiding interests, other temporary enthusiasms, and other contributors.  There’ll be me, probably about every seven to ten days, depending on what else I’m working on, what my daughter’s up to, where the Yarras are playing, whether Samsa the cat needs the vet etc.  There’ll also be Sam Perry, half of The Grade Cricketer, and Errol Parker, editor-at-large of the Betoota Advocate, forming a supergroup a la Crosby, Stills & Nash - maybe we can even wheel Pete out in the Neil Young role. 

It’ll be a bit loose - or looser than the straitjacket of the daily column I’ve probably grown a little too used to.  Don’t come here for your hot takes on Davey, or your data on Smudger.  There’s no point my adding to what's already in oversupply, and other people do it better anyway.  I’m interested in the stuff underneath, to one side, in the water, and even that has no bearing on cricket at all. Eventually we’ll introduce a subscription model - or, at least, Sam will, because he understands this better than I do*.  But in the meantime it’s nice to be out from behind the paywall of The Australian, after a period snagged on its barbed wire.  So carpe diem, ex nihilo nihil fiat, Carthago delenda est and Cricket Et Al.  Thanks for dropping by.

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*Gideon is right, we’ll eventually go with some kind of paid subscription model - some stuff for free, other stuff paid - but if you’d like to get on board now, paid memberships are available below. SP