A life behind the lens: Liam Clarke

Having kickstarted my own journey into the sports broadcasting industry through the medium of low-budget Instagram livestreams on my Cricket Connoisseur account during the latter stages of 2019, it’s astonishing to see how much the landscape of cricket content has changed - and indeed continues to change - in such a short amount of time.

In order to learn more about the pros and cons of this rapidly evolving sector, I had the pleasure of catching up with Liam Clarke, a popular cricket content creator from South Warwickshire who goes by the name of LiamBeforeWicket on his social media channels.

Liam, who plays his club cricket for Alcester & Ragley in the mighty Cotswold Hills League, started creating videos in September 2025 and has since gone on to rack up over 30,000 followers on his Instagram account alone, with several of his videos accumulating well in excess of 1 million views across platforms.

As a fellow Bears fan, I wanted to talk to the rising online star about his earliest cricketing memories at Edgbaston, his favourite aspects of life as a club cricketer here in the West Midlands as well as the advice that he would give to any aspiring cricket content creators in Shakespeare’s County and beyond.

Here's what he had to say:

Liam, thanks for taking the time to have a chat with us today. We’ll kickstart our conversation with the classic opening question here at The Bear, what are your earliest ever memories of cricket, either playing or watching the game?

For me, it definitely started in a watching sense, and it was all down to my grandad John really. He was a Warwickshire member for most of his life, and he’d take me to Edgbaston whenever he possibly could. I think my first game there would have been when I was around 5 years old, but I can’t say that I properly understood or recognised the cricket that was going on in front of me until I was about 8 or 9!

Based on that response, I think I might already know the answer to this next question, but who would you say was your biggest influence in those early years?

Yeah, it would definitely be my grandad. Football used to be my main sport when I was younger, but for him it was always cricket, so he’d take me and my cousin, Tom, to Edgbaston to try and imprint some cricket on us as soon as he could. My dad and my uncle were never really interested in the game, so he made it his life mission to get us both into cricket at an early age. Lo and behold, here we are today as massive cricket badgers, so I’d definitely say that it worked. Sadly, he passed away four years ago but I’ll always have those great memories of going to games with him and his mates from the ‘Studley Five’ – who were called that because they’d meet up in Studley for a carvery before heading over to Edgbaston – and that really helped me and my cousin develop a proper love for the sport.

That love for the game definitely shows in your content, especially when you discuss your passion for the club circuit here in the Midlands. Out of interest, when and where did you first start playing club cricket?

My first experience of club cricket was for a team called Studley Entaco CC. I must have only been around 10 when I first started playing for them and it was great because it was a proper local village team and they taught me how to play the game in the right way from the very beginning. They sadly folded a few years ago, but I’ll always look back on my time there with really fond memories. Then, after that, I spent a couple of seasons at Redditch and in 2019, I made the move to Alcester & Ragley CC and have been there ever since!

And what would you say is your favourite element of club cricket?

For me, it’s just that sense of getting lost in the mundanity of the game at times, which admittedly doesn’t sound like much of a compliment, but trust me when I say that it definitely is. I look back on a moment in our first game of the season for example where I was just stood in the outfield, the sun’s shining, the birds are singing and I know it sounds a bit cliché, but it helped me forget about everything else in the world in that moment. Given how busy we all are, we don’t give ourselves much time to switch off from things, but playing club cricket alongside a bunch of other people who also have that real love for the game almost forces you to switch off for those few hours on a Saturday or a Sunday, and that’s what makes it so special.

What’s been the highlight from your time on the village green?

We’re really fortunate in the Cotswold Hills League in the sense that we get to play at some beautiful cricket grounds, and having Ragley Hall as our home one has to be right at the top of that list, which brings me nicely onto a highlight actually. For those who don’t know, we have the Midlands Air Festival there every year and during one of those festivals, we’d just won a really tough game and we’re all on the balcony – watching the sun set with a beer in hand – just watching these massive hot air balloons floating over the cricket ground. That’s one of those images which has always stuck in my head ever since and it just reminded me why we play the game, so it’d definitely have to be that moment.

Shifting our focus from the beautiful landscapes of the Cotswold Hills League to the virtual landscape of social media Liam, how did you first get into cricket content creation?

I’ve always worked in radio, specifically on the more digital side of the industry, so content creation has always gone hand-in-hand with my day job really. I’d love to sit here and tell you that there was some big lightbulb moment where everything suddenly fell into place, but I was just bored one day, started watching some cricket content as normal and thought that I’d be nice to give it a go myself!

Admittedly, the first few videos didn’t get many views - at least from people who weren’t me or my Mum - but I thought I’d persist with it anyway because it was a lot of fun.

Then the 2025/26 Ashes happened.

For those who don’t know, my style of video is quite self-deprecating, so they ended up going down quite well with both the English and the Aussie fans who share that similar sort of humour. Anyway, I went to bed one night during that series, woke up a few hours later and saw that one of my videos had surpassed 1 million views, it was unreal. From there, things have continued to snowball across social media and I’m just enjoying the journey really, it’s all good fun.

What’s your favourite element of cricket content creation?

That’s quite a tough question actually, because there’s a lot of parts to it that I really enjoy. I think for me, one of the best bits is just going to a game and interacting with other cricket fans who have watched my videos. Whenever you see those positive comments on social media, it’s always nice to have that interaction, but it’s even better when you can spend some time with those same people in person at a game and have a proper conversation about the sport. It’s also worth mentioning that most of my friends are football fans, which is great when Blues are playing, but it’s also nice to spend time with people who enjoy cricket as much as I do. I reckon it’s that sense of friendship and community which makes it all worth it on a personal level.

On the flip side, what would you say is the toughest aspect of creating cricket content?

I think the risk of burnout is the big one. When you’re trying to balance content creation alongside a full-time job, which is exactly what I’m doing, it’s really important to strike the right balance with it all so that it doesn’t affect your life in a negative way. If I ever get to a stage where the content creation becomes a drag and it’s taking away from my enjoyment of the game, there’s a real risk that it could affect my love of cricket and I’d never want that happen, so I always set myself clear boundaries to ensure that it doesn’t feel like work to me. On a slightly different note, I also think there’s a lot of anxiety in the world of content creation in the sense that you could go a couple of days without posting a video, and whilst 99% of people wouldn’t notice, as a creator you get a feeling of needing to post something instead of taking the time to produce something organically. As we all know, in cricket, there are some weeks where there’s a load of different things going on and then there are others where it seems like there’s next to nothing happening, so you almost have to train your brain to come to terms with that at times. I think if you have that ability to do that, it allows you to just continue having fun with it in the long-term really.

Do you have any hobbies that help you switch off from work and cricket content creation?

I wouldn’t say it helps me to switch off, but I’m a massive football fan and a season ticket holder at Birmingham City, so I spend quite a lot of my time watching them whenever I can. During the quieter times though, I like to read a good fantasy book or load up an open-world video game on the PS5 to help me switch off a bit.

I’m also a big music fan, especially when it comes to stuff from the 70’s and 80’s because that’s what my Dad brought me up on, so I like going to gigs and concerts when the time allows as well.

And just before we get back to our chat about content creation, are there any other interesting facts about you that people might not already know?

Yeah, I can think of quite a good one for this actually. When I scored my first hundred at Ragley Park - against Temple Grafton CC - I brought it up by hitting a six off the bowling of former England and Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry. As you can imagine, as a Birmingham City fan, that made the moment even more special, and I had quite a few of my mates who support Villa watching on at the ground at the same time too so, yeah, that was great!

Wow, that’s going to be quite the story for the grandkids one day! Going back to our previous conversation though, what advice would you give to any aspiring cricket content creators out there who are maybe just starting out on their journey?

My first bit of advice would be to work out what you want your content niche to be and just try to do it to the best of your ability. When I first started out, I wanted to do a million different things to try and branch out as much as possible, but different people tend to do certain types of content better, so you’ve got to find a style that suits your particular skillset best.

For me personally, that skillset tends to be creating satirical and comedic skits because that’s always been in my wheelhouse and it’s what I’m most comfortable with, so if you can identify that niche early, you’ll be in a good place for the future.

And finally, Liam, it’s a somewhat profound question to finish on, but what are you hoping to achieve in the world of cricket content creation heading into the future?

I just want to keep growing and keep enjoying it as much as I possibly can. I’m quite lucky in the sense that I already work in an industry that I really enjoy, so if it ever becomes a full-time job that would be amazing, but even if it’s just something on the side which I can continue to evolve, I’ll be happy.

Ideally, I’d also love to go to other parts of the world and explore different places through my cricket content, so if I ever get the chance to do that, that would be absolutely incredible too!