Cricket Australia has promised a smooth transition between MyCricket and PlayHQ

PlayHQ will replace MyCricket from August 31. Here is what cricketers can expect once the change occurs.

Cricket Australia has promised a smooth transition for Victorian and Queensland cricketers when they are forced to change data providers next summer.

New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia moved from MyCricket to PlayHQ in 2022-23 and Victoria and Queensland will follow suit by August 31.

The states which used the platform last year experienced issues such as the absence of historical data, no updated season statistics and an inability to live score to the similar efficiency of MyCricket.

These issues left club volunteers with further work to do and created conjecture surrounding the transition in Victoria and Queensland.

However, Cricket Australia has accepted responsibility for some of the early issues and apologised to volunteers who were called upon to do more.

“The current transition by Cricket Australia to PlayHQ is part of an overall digital transformation that we believe will greatly improve the online experience of associations, clubs and volunteers and inevitably make their important roles easier,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.

“We acknowledge there have been some technical issues during this transition that have caused inconvenience for volunteers.

“We understand this has caused some disruption and have worked hard to ensure we can provide the support clubs and volunteers need.

“One significant problem at the start of the season was a synching failure between the existing MyCricket App and the PlayHQ platform.

“We worked to resolve this problem and we were very happy with the performance of the PlayHQ platform itself.

“We are continually consulting with local associations, club and volunteers to provide the necessary information and training for the transition to PlayHQ and to ensure that this platform and complementary MyCricket app will have the features the need to perform their roles.”

Carlton celebrates the wicket of Jonathan Merlo. Picture: Valeriu Campan

While each club has been encouraged to extract their players’ historical data in the lead-up to the succession, PlayHQ is yet to have an entry for said data.

However, Cricket Australia is working through this issue and has promised no previous heroics will be lost.

“Whilst the MyCricket website is being shutdown later this year, nothing is lost. The data that sits behind it (scorecards, results, player statistics) will be retained,” Cricket Australia said.

“Acknowledging that some people prefer a website experience over an app, we are planning to build a new web experience that taps into this data providing rich fixtures, ladders, results, statistics and match centre capability.

“Both the app and web will bring together data from the legacy MyCricket platform and PlayHQ.

“Until this new website is available, the legacy MyCricket website will still be accessible for people to access historical records.”

Cricket Australia promises no historical data will be lost.. (AAP Image/Ryan Pierse)

Martin Gleeson, Cricket New South Wales General Manager of Community Cricket Experience, outlined the challenges cricket clubs in New South Wales faced during their transition.

“There is widespread understanding throughout the cricket community that MyCricket is no longer fit for purpose and needed to be replaced,” he said.

“CNSW made the decision to embrace that change and transition cricket across the state to the new platform last season.

“There‘s no doubt there were challenges with the transition to PlayHQ in the first season. These are well documented and have been acknowledged as not meeting expectations by CNSW and CA.

“Some technical shortcomings at the start of the season compounded some functional differences from MyCricket created a challenging early season experience for volunteers across the state

“Unfortunately, the system did not save volunteer time or improve the player experience in its first season.

“The initial set up of competitions was a task that took time for volunteers to put in place. Additional learnings and improved system function will see many Associations revisit their competition set up in year two.

“However, there is certainly long-term gain to be made through this function.”

NSW Premier Cricket grand final. Photo: Cricket NSW

The biggest fault in MyCricket is its tendency to crash under demand, particularly on a Saturday evening when scores were being lodged across the state.

Gleeson confirmed PlayHQ performed much better under pressure.

“MyCricket certainly would suffer reduced performance in NSW in a similar way previously. With the system being almost 20 years old and server based it did struggle with the spike of demand at peak times,” he said.

“PlayHQ as a cloud-based platform performed significantly better in this space.

“Early in the season there were challenges with surfacing scoring data in real time in the MyCricket app.

“After being able to improve the integration of data between PlayHQ and the MyCricket app there were limited issues in this area from November onwards.”

Gleeson summarised the transition as “difficult” for volunteers however showed further faith in the platform’s improvement come next season.

“Overall, as a summary, last season was a difficult one for many of our volunteers in transitioning to the system and dealing with some of the initial issues,” he said.

“The system‘s performance improved across the course of the season and we are confident that our important volunteers will have a significantly improved experience next season.

“We also acknowledge that we need to build some confidence in the system and what it offers, and this will be a focus for our training and our staff working with clubs and associations.”

Joel Doran of Tasmania University. Picture: Linda Higginson

Tasmania faced similar problems with one cricket club, which wished to remain unnamed, explaining the most frustrating aspect of the platform was its lack of data.

“There were no statistics until the end of the season,” the club said.

“We had a couple of matches and its associated statistics disappear into the never-never and they’ve never been found.

“The statistical side of things (could improve) because that’s what the players are interested in.

“They want to know how many runs they’ve scored, how wickets they’ve taken and what their averages are – that’s what players look at.

“That statistical information needed to be there from the get-go.”

Local cricket clubs in Victoria and Queensland have shared specific concerns about the practicality of PlayHQ requiring registrations fees (subs) to be paid upfront upon registration.

Cricket Australia has confirmed lower grade cricketers who play irregularly will not be subject to this fee and will be able to pay intermittently.

“The PlayHQ platform allows clubs to configure their registrations to allow for smaller payments by one game players or other variations,” Cricket Australia said.

“It should be noted that all players are required to pay the National Registration Fee which covers costs including insurance and a small platform fee.”