Surrey County Cricket Club has launched an official channel on short-form video sharing app TikTok, claiming it is the first professional cricket team to do so.
The new account, @surreycricket, launched today (Thursday) with the intention of showcasing players and club personalities in a way never-before-seen in cricket. Kicking off the account’s output is a ‘Stare Wars’ between England internationals Ollie Pope and Sam Curran.
TikTok has been building a presence in the sports market, with Liverpool becoming the first English Premier League football club to launch an official channel back in May. Surrey noted that TikTok’s popularity in South Asia, where cricket is the dominant sport, was a reason behind its decision to launch a channel.
The club added that followers of Surrey’s TikTok account can expect to see different content than distributed on its existing social media channels, including behind-the-scenes footage and entertaining moments that would otherwise go unseen.
Emily Clark, head of marketing at Surrey County Cricket Club, said: “We are an ambitious club on and off the field, and we always want to challenge ourselves to progress with the distribution of creative content that entertains our supporters around the world.
“We recognise that TikTok has a lot of potential to allow us to connect with a global cricket audience and showcase the club’s values as well as our players personalities and lifestyles away from the cricket field.”