Fwd: An important update regarding CricHQ and Play-Cricket

[Jupiter Punungwe]

I have received this email from CriqHQ

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Simon Baker <simon...@crichq.com>
Date: 14 March 2017 at 08:00
Subject: An important update regarding CricHQ and Play-Cricket
To: punu...@gmail.com

Dear Jupiter, Since our email of 5 March regarding CricHQ and the pending TCS V9 integration with the ECB’s Play-Cricket.com website, we have received several inquiries from existing customers. We’d like to take this opportunity to clarify CricHQ's position for all our customers. Over the last seven years, CricHQ has invested a significant amount in development, implementation and support costs in the UK cricket market via our own platform. CricHQ’s commitment to the UK extended to us acquiring, integrating and modernising the delivery platform for Total Cricket Scorer (TCS), providing existing UK customers with a robust PC based solution for digitally scoring cricket matches that will shortly integrate directly with CricHQ, the world’s most comprehensive platform for cricket. As part of this commitment CricHQ has also developed, managed and delivered "syncing" functionality to the ECB Play-Cricket.com website for UK matches scored on CricHQ and TCS, at CricHQ's cost. During this period, CricHQ has not received a single penny from the ECB for this service. In relation to this functionality we have on a number of occasions requested that the ECB make our data available to CricHQ through this service and provide an assurance that they intend on complying with our data and privacy policies. The ECB has not complied nor even responded to our requests. In late 2016 as a part of their process to introduce a new ECB branded scoring app, the ECB altered the API structure for Play-Cricket.com "syncing” as noted in the above point, which requires that CricHQ update its API feed to ensure continued integration with Play-Cricket.com. CricHQ accordingly requested a commercial rate of £1200 per day to complete the required API update work, which the ECB has declined to pay. Whilst in the past we have provided our services without expectation of payment, this was due to us investing in a long term strategic partnership with the ECB, which is now less likely given the ECB now has entered a commercial relationship with another technology provider. Accordingly, the decision has been made by CricHQ that continued investment at our cost alone for the provision of any services including match data capture via either the CricHQ scoring app and TCS to the Play-Cricket.com website is not commercially feasible. This decision has been reached based on customer feedback in the UK that CricHQ provides a far superior integrated cricket platform and is already being rapidly adopted by progressive cricket organisations across the UK. Additionally the ECB has informed us that the Play-Cricket website has a limited shelf life moving forward and that they will be exploring alternative options in the near future. CricHQ has also invested in a separate function on our platform further providing the ECB Play-Cricket.com website the option to import all matches scored on TCS or CricHQ automatically into to the ECB database, fulfilling all user requirements for providing participant and match data. We have requested that the ECB pay a modest annual fee of £50,000 (less than the average ECB annual salary for one person) for the ongoing provision of this function. With approximately 200,000 fixtures annually, this service saves around 30 minutes of volunteer time manually uploading scorecards for each match which equals about 100,000 hours of volunteer time in total each season. Therefore our conclusion is that the ECB values volunteer time at less than 50p per hour. CricHQ was invited to respond to the ECB scoring app tender in Q3 last year. At that time we communicated to the ECB that CricHQ had serious concerns with the tender requirements and we would not be formally responding. We felt that the functionality requested was not sufficient and would result in a solution that was not going to meet end user needs. Examples of the limitations in scope included the ECB tender requirements not covering core current CricHQ scoring app and TCS capabilities such as scoreboard integration, Duckworth Lewis Stern integration, MVP formula delivery, Push notifications, In club TV interface, Pitch maps and wagon wheels, and more. Further, the tender stipulated that the scoring app be “fully functional by 1 February 2017 and live by 1 March”. We advised that these timeframes were not realistic for a standalone solution and carried reputation risk for the delivering company. This has since been borne out by current ECB scoring app release delays. We also believe that building a standalone scoring app prior to the ECB completing their "technology review" would likely lead to a white elephant solution and/or significant additional cost in the long run. In addition to the difficulties with the technical specification and timeframes of the tender, the ECB's commercial terms were unacceptable to CricHQ. CricHQ was asked to assign all Intellectual property rights to the ECB in return for a commercial commitment of only 1 year. Despite this, at the time of the ECB tender, CricHQ presented an alternative proposal to the ECB's stated requirement for a "white labelled" solution. The ECB chose not to accept our alternate solution, opting for an unproven bespoke solution in contrast to their stipulated tender requirements. Previously CricHQ has also previously offered an entire platform “white labelled” solution in replacement of Play-Cricket.com. This solution would provide the ECB and its stakeholders with a market leading, complete cricket administration platform, fully integrated with the CricHQ scoring app and TCS, which has already been widely adopted in the UK. The cost of the proposed white label platform solution was minimal and would save the ECB hundreds of thousands of pounds each year when compared to the cost of continuing to support Play-Cricket.com. Given the above, we feel it is unjust and inaccurate that the ECB is communicating to the effect that CricHQ is ‘holding them to ransom’ over either the syncing, integration or the adoption of an up-to-date platform for managing all elements of cricket. It is also misleading for the ECB to state: "despite our best efforts, it has not yet been possible to reach a sensible commercial agreement with CricHQ to continue to integrate Play-Cricket with CricHQ products". The reality is that the ECB has not accepted any of our multiple and reasonable commercial options, nor responded to our invitation to suggest an alternate commercial agreement. The ECB has quite simply demanded that CricHQ provide everything totally free of charge (£0). As of today, the only monetary transaction between the parties has been CricHQ sharing with the ECB 50% of a £100k advertising deal on our app with Natwest. CricHQ continues to invite the ECB to engage in further discussions. Yours sincerely, Simon Baker | Chief Executive Officer You received this email because you are subscribed to Product Updates from CricHQ. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.  Unsubscribe from all future emails  CricHQ   CricHQ House  89 Upland Road  Kelburn,  Wellington      New Zealand

[Malcolm]

Well ... that's the cat firmly amongst the pigeons.
I feel that the ECB needs an opportunity to respond with its PoV and, where appropriate, refute or correct any comments that are in dispute.

[Gramar]

I couldn't agree more. But didn't the ECB/Play-Cricket promise us a statement last week, or have I missed it? Seems mighty quiet from Lords. And when is the new scoring app due to be released? Hopefully before the start of the new season!

[Simon Winder]

Is not the point that (To me anyway, as team manager, junior coach, club IT manager!!!!) the biggest advantage of TCS is the Play Cricket integration.

Live scores, wagon wheels and all the other features are nice, but after coaching, picking a team, setting up the ground, umpiring a match, shutting up and tidying the ground, getting home at gone 9 not having eaten yet, not having to spend half an hour putting information on play cricket is the be all and end all of TCS to me.

Surley CricHQ should they be paying the ECB for access to Play Cricket?

---

From: Jupiter Punungwe <punu...@gmail.com>
To: total-cric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 9:15
Subject: [Total Cricket Scorer:1687] Fwd: An important update regarding CricHQ and Play-Cricket

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[Phil Bates]

I find this all quite bizarre, who is the customer and who is the supplier!

Has CricHQ forgotten that we the scorers have been purchasing their flagship product because it interfaces with Play-Cricket, the web platform that a vast number of clubs are required to use because their league expects it and for many it interfaces with their electronic scoreboard. I for one do not care what goes on between the ECB and CricHQ behind the scene but I do expect that if I pay for a service I expect it to work. CricHQ are bleating that the ECB will not pay them to interface with each other's servers and then CricHQ is demanding that any 3rd party wanting to use an XML export must buy a license, isn't it reasonable to expect that if CricHQ wants to sell a feature such as an interface with Play-Cricket they should expect to pay for the privilege, as there would be a mutual benefit it is not unreasonable to expect that this would be at zero cost. Because they don't seem to have the commercial acumen to understand this basic principle they have proposed a solution that gives away their major product in a hope that cash strapped clubs which form the largest proportion of their market will buy a website solution for an annual fee which gives them nothing extra. Play-Cricket will continue to give them what their leagues want, the majority of these clubs still use paper and pencil for scoring but soon they will have the opportunity to use electronic scoring with live scores for free, a cost effective solution requiring minimal investment in technology.

I will not be moving to V9 which I understand is due to be released next Monday and I won't be surprised if V8 stops working for the majority 4 weeks after this and I will be deleting everything CricHQ from my devices.

As has already been suggested we should continue to lobby the ECB to invest in a PC version of the app. Microsoft have their own AppStore on Windows so to migrate the scorer app to a Windows Mobile base shouldn't be that difficult.

[Craig Kell]

Well said Phil!

[johndav...@talktalk.net]

I have just received this via Cricket Wales this morning

From: James Nickson [mailto:James....@ecb.co.uk]
Sent: 13 March 2017 17:27
To: James Nickson
Subject: Update on CricHQ and Play-Cricket

Afternoon all

I wanted to follow up with a bit more information about TCS and CricHQ since my email on Tuesday last week.

In summary, as of yet, we have not been able to have a conversation with CricHQ to either address the data feed from TCS to Play-Cricket, nor some frequently asked questions of clarification over what will happen with TCS. I have a call booked in for 11am with CricHQ tomorrow though, so hope to make some progress. Please let me know if you have any pressing questions you think I should be aware of.

In the meantime, for questions of clarification around CricHQ products, including TCS, we urge you to advise users to contact sup...@totalcricketscorer.com, as user influence might well help speed up clarification.

I mentioned before that we have not been able to reach reasonable commercial terms with CricHQ to enable the exchange of data between CricHQ and Play-Cricket. It’s fair to say that there is some distance in what both parties believe are reasonable terms, and the ECB cannot agree to terms we consider unreasonable that will take money away from other important areas of the game.

It’s also worth clarifying that data will not flow from the CricHQ platform into Play-Cricket as CricHQ have stated. CricHQ have everything they need to enable this, but Play-Cricket is not receiving their scorecards in the correct format.

For next season, as things stand today, this is how people might consider preparing:

Scorers who are laptop users

CricHQ say that you’ll need to upgrade from TCS v8 to v9. Whether you need to in reality is a different matter. But CricHQ have confirmed you need to upgrade, and if you’re a TCS user, there is a licence agreement to be aware of http://www.totalcricketscorer.com/TCSWeb/TCSTerms.aspx

If you use TCS v9 you will need to manually update scorecards into Play-Cricket. It’s not yet clear if CricHQ will enable TCS v9 users to download fixtures from Play-Cricket, although they can access the data if they want to.

Scorers who are not laptop users

If you open to using a tablet or phone, you may use Play-Cricket Scorer http://www.play-cricket.com/updates for free. It will be live in the app store by April (currently due 16^th March), using very similar technology being used to score some Sheffield Shield game in Australia, as well as their recreational cricket.

Unofficiated cricket

The vast majority of recreational cricket is unofficiated and captains and players will be able to use Play-Cricket Scorer from a tablet or mobile.

You’ll find more detail in the email that was sent to ACO member last Friday afternoon http://ecb-aco.co.uk/t/1FZA-4TD3A-C07FE7XF8A/cr.aspx

Best wishes

 

James

 

	James Nickson Head of Customer Marketing and Systems England and Wales Cricket Board Lord's Cricket Ground, St John's Wood, London, NW8 8QZ, England
Mobile: +44(0)7825 244930 : Switchboard: +44 (0)20 7432 1200 E-mail: http://www.ecb.co.uk

----Original Message----
From: cra...@gmail.com
Date: 14/03/2017 11:47
To: "Total Cricket Scorer"<total-cric...@googlegroups.com>
Subj: [Total Cricket Scorer:1695] Re: An important update regarding CricHQ and Play-Cricket

Well said Phil!

[Geoff Maddocks]

After that email from the Crichq CEO I am done with their products - it seems quite clear that they are doing this to try and force users across to their platform and get paid by the ECB for doing so!!!! To me the most important feature is the Play-Cricket syncing and that already exists in V8 which we have all paid for. The ACO email says this will still work.
But I don't trust crichq now, who knows what they are going to do. What a desperate attempt by them to get extra fees from the ECB - based on that document Chris posted its pretty clear they need it. Maybe they'll go under and Paul & Lee can take over TCS again!!
As soon as the new Play-Cricket app comes out I going to put some effort into getting used to it and provide feedback so it works for me. Might be my only option in 2017

[ckms...@gmail.com]

well what do you say... http://about.crichq.com/worst-cricket-websites

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[Phil Bates]

Well!  Last year I won a free copy of TCS V8 plus Live Scores and they canned the lot before I could use it.  Anybody's guess what they'll do with this free give away.

On Wednesday, 22 March 2017 09:13:05 UTC, Chris Mountain wrote:

well what do you say... http://about.crichq.com/worst-cricket-websites

> On 14 March 2017 at 19:19 Geoff Maddocks <gmadd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> After that email from the Crichq CEO I am done with their products - it seems
> quite clear that they are doing this to try and force users across to their
> platform and get paid by the ECB for doing so!!!! To me the most important
> feature is the Play-Cricket syncing and that already exists in V8 which we
> have all paid for. The ACO email says this will still work.
> But I don't trust crichq now, who knows what they are going to do. What a
> desperate attempt by them to get extra fees from the ECB - based on that
> document Chris posted its pretty clear they need it. Maybe they'll go under
> and Paul  & Lee can take over TCS again!!
> As soon as the new Play-Cricket app comes out I going to put some effort into
> getting used to it and provide feedback so it works for me. Might be my only
> option in 2017
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Total Cricket Scorer" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

> email to total-cricket-scorer+unsub...@googlegroups.com.