NZ Cricket’s online scoring system scores badly with clubs

A new online scoring system has caused frustrations. Photo / File

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New Zealand Cricket has acknowledged “challenges and problems” with a new online scoring system that has being rolled out for use in club matches and youth and senior level, as volunteers and clubs voice frustration with the system.

Just months before the season was set to start, the new system, delivered by Australian company PlayHQ, was introduced across the country’s cricket associations, replacing a system provided by New Zealand company CricHQ.

In a statement on Friday, NZ Cricket said: “We’re well aware that, across the country, hard-working volunteers of the community game ... have been faced with challenges and problems connected to the new platform.

“Rest assured we’re listening to the issues you’re highlighting and wasting no time in feeding these back to the administrators of PlayHQ.”

Chris Reid, Premier Men’s coach at Auckland’s North Shore Cricket Club, said PlayHQ has been going “very poorly”.

“We had a perfectly functioning product [CricHQ] and no one has actually explained why we moved away from it.”

Reid said his club members had found function errors and noted the system did not support previous live-stream investments.

“It’s quite a shame.”

He said club volunteers were bearing the brunt of the issues with NZ Cricket’s rollout of the scoring system.

“They didn’t test it correctly; it’s been rushed out and we’re the ones that are suffering at the coalface. It’s typical of NZC, they’ve done it before.

“All I keep telling everyone is ‘can we just fast forward 12 months when we get to the point where everyone goes, we f***ed up and we’re going to go back to CricHQ’,” Reid said.

The chairman of Johnsonville Cricket Club, Rick Mudgeway, said the scoring system “has been very poorly delivered”.

“It is not fit for purpose; there’s a lack of user testing and it’s fraught with problems.”

Mudgeway said that after repeated system errors with PlayHQ, some at his club have reverted to scoring with pen and paper.

North Shore’s club manager, Tendai Chitongo, told the Herald “it’s been a bit of a nightmare”.

“At the moment it’s just a little chaotic because it was introduced to the clubs so late. It’s been forced onto people when it wasn’t ready.”

Chitongo says because the scoring site is so unreliable scorers are having to carry a pen and paper as a backup.

He said NZ Cricket should have taken more time to educate clubs and volunteers on the new system.

“I mean, change is never easy … but I think it just needed a little bit more time before they introduced it to us.

“It might be a good product in the future — but right now a lot of people don’t have a lot of faith in it.”

The statement was signed by bosses of NZ Cricket and domestic associations and sent to clubs around the country.

“Please rest assured we’re listening to the issues you’re highlighting and wasting no time in feeding these back to the administrators of PlayHQ as they work through the necessary improvements and updates.

“Significant resources are being concentrated in this area, and we encourage feedback which allows the process to be expedited.”