'Tone deaf': Cricket clubs oppose new compulsory fee for app

While NZC said the app is not mandatory to use because some cricketers across the country do not use the PlayHQ scoring system, the fee remains compulsory.

“NZC understands it can’t force people to use the app. It simply believes participants will want it for its features and time-saving capability,” said Richard Boock, NZC manager of public affairs.

It will benefit the community by providing a one-stop shop for live scoring, player statistics, competition draws and team management, and allow clubs to communicate with players with push notifications, Boock said.

The PlayHQ scoring website, the platform most use to check live scores and draws, will remain online.

But some grassroots clubs have called for the compulsory fee to be scrapped.

It means for cricket households like the Moot family in Christchurch, whose two children and mother Suzy each play, it is another $22.50 expense every season on top of their regular fees.

“It’s just a bit unrealistic to expect families to fork that out every year,” said Suzy Moot, who sympathised with families larger than hers that have five members all playing.

Moot questioned whether the app’s extra functionality compared with the live-scoring websites currently available was worth it.

“If it’s going to give us the ability to follow scores along live, they can already do that with PlayHQ [website]. I’ve been sitting at my son’s game and watching my daughter’s game on PlayHQ.”

She said a one-off fee to buy the app, if needed, would be more understandable, but the expectation of extra funds from families every year meant “you’d be expecting great things to get bang for your buck”.

In a letter of opposition sent to NZC leaders, seen by The Press, Christchurch clubs said it is unacceptable for community players to be “taxed” to cover digital infrastructure costs.

“The introduction of a new cost, particularly framed as a fee for an app that players neither asked for nor necessarily use, has been described by our association members as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘disconnected’ from the realities of community cricket,” it said.

The letter was signed by Sydenham, Halswell, Old Boys Collegians, St Albans, Lancaster Park, Richmond, East Christchurch Shirley, Heathcote, Merivale Papanui, Riccarton, and Marist Harewood cricket clubs.

Clubs fund 95% to 97% of operating costs independently, and all work hard to keep fees low for their members, said Heathcote Cricket Club president Ralph Bungard.

To expect hard-working club volunteers to manage player frustrations and explain a compulsory fee increase that was forced upon them without consultation was NZC “not reading the room”, he said.

“We’ve been through a period of increases in the last decade with the cost of balls, pitch preparation, just costs with modern cricket,” Bungard said.

“It is ... a compulsory levy paying for something that really is business-related and we haven’t had any input into.”

NZC has committed to holding the levy at $7.50 for at least five years through to the 2029/30 season.

The clubs suggested to NZC that it should centrally fund the app through reserves or commercial channels rather than from grassroots players.

“We remain committed to growing the game and supporting our players but not at the cost of being dictated to, without consultation, by those charged with supporting us,” their letter said.

They requested future decisions with direct financial impacts on players involve “genuine engagement and transparency”.

There are 45,000 individuals playing cricket across the country and NZC said the price of the levy was directly linked to the cost of the app. “Not a cent goes anywhere else,” it told The Press.

It is the first time NZC has introduced a national participant fee for community cricket. It will bump up the fees that players currently pay to their clubs to play in local competitions, which vary by age and level — junior fees could start at about $60, while senior club members could pay anywhere from $190 to $400 a season.

Moot said she would “hate to think” how much money the family spent to play the “sport we love”.

It was “not a cheap sport already”, she said, estimating it costs $500 a season for their family subscriptions plus equipment because it is “nice to have your own” instead of using the team kit. The price was also increasing every year as their children progressed through the age-groups, she said.

Hockey considers going similar way

Cricket clubs have been using PlayHQ technology for three years. Its teething wobbles caused outrage in scorers’ boxes nationwide when NZC ditched Kiwi company CricHQ for the Aussie newcomer at the time.

PlayHQ offers basketball, AFL, hockey, cricket and netball platforms, with NZ Hockey and cricket its first offshore expansion.

Canterbury Hockey Association chief executive Shane Maddaford said the dream would be for hockey to have its own designated app in the future.

The association uses the PlayHQ website for draws and fixtures and this season it began streamlining payments through the system. No new fees were introduced, it only mandated that players pay their Hockey NZ affiliation fee directly via the platform, rather than Canterbury Hockey being invoiced and paying it on their behalf.

“All it was doing was removing me being the middle-man,” Maddaford said.

The next step was to get other regions on board using PlayHQ payment portals and develop an app to “improve participant experience”, so that paying subs, seeing player statistics and draws were all in one place.

Maddaford believed that would cost “bugger all” — less than a cup of coffee per player — and the costs involved were the “nature of the beast of having these high-end high-functioning applications that we need to run our sport”.

Mike Harvey, general manager of Christchurch Metro Cricket Association, said live scoring through the PlayHQ website for all ages had “really picked up” and was a valued tool.

“You’re following what’s happening around the grounds and it’s a good product that people have been using a bit more,” Harvey said.

He expected the new app to have more functionality than the website and, while it was a NZC decision and his association had no input, it was working out how it would affect people, he said.

What does New Zealand Cricket say?

In an email to members, NZC said the technology levy was “crucial for sustaining the future of our sport and its digital evolution”.

It would help ensure the sport is “vibrant, resilient, and continues to attract the next generation of players”.

Boock said there had been a constant request for an app interface for the past three seasons.

“It represents a significant digital upgrade for players, supporters, and volunteers, bringing together multiple streams of information in one home,” he said.

While Bungard said community clubs felt left out of the conversation and hit with the levy “out of the blue”, NZC said it had consulted with the major and district associations, such as Canterbury Cricket.

Canterbury Cricket chief executive Richard Brewer said the organisation had neither raised nor requested the development of an app with NZC, but was informed of the development of the PlayHQ community app at the same time it was advised that NZC planned to introduce the levy.

“In response, we requested a meeting with NZC to provide feedback and raised several concerns on behalf of our community.”

Brewer said they had told NZC that such a levy was a “material shift” in how the game is traditionally funded and should involve wider consultation, and suggested that NZC consider other funding models.

It also raised concerns that charging people could put them off playing. “NZC heard that feedback but decided to proceed anyway,” Brewer said.

Cricket Central is scheduled to launch before the 2025/26 season begins.