“Monday to Friday, people are sharing the content,” says Rob Knee, chief executive of the cricket livestreaming company FrogBox. You can say that again. The story and accompanying footage of Brian Devine’s apparent finger-clicking chicanery at Saltburn Cricket Club went around the world last week. When Piers Morgan and Mike Brearley are wading into the discourse to give you a kicking on social media and a ticking off in the Times, it is probably a sign things have got a bit out of hand.
“We’d much rather see some outstanding catches, centuries and sixes being the cause of those viral moments,” Knee tells The Spin down the phone from Melbourne with the “Clicky Ponting” saga still rumbling. Saltburn CC are one of 1,850 clubs, mainly in the UK and Australia, who have purchased a livestreaming kit from the Australia-based company.
As well as Cricket Australia, Cricket Scotland and Netherlands Cricket, FrogBox partners with the England and Wales Cricket Board. “We have access to their live scoring data, that then powers the on-screen graphics and also allows us to then automate highlights.”
Knee says that FrogBox are expanding. They have posted more than 3m cricket clips online and their kits (RRP £2,380) have sold out this year. They are already taking pre-orders for next season. Clubs have used their footage to secure sponsorships and funding, and it is this and the heartwarming side to livestreaming that Knee is keen to focus on, pointing out that parents can now have their child’s first run or wicket captured. Special moments such as hat-tricks and centuries live on not just in memory but as a permanent memento.
“When you are streaming over 1,000 games a weekend that is a potential quarter of a million highlights every single week that we are capturing. One of our first viral moments was a player whose day job is a taxi driver and he ended up smashing a six into his own cab. Thankfully the clips that tend to do well are hugely positive.”
Nevertheless, the livestreaming of amateur cricket matches throws up some thorny issues about what exactly constitutes a private and a public space. “We’re the technology provider but we require the clubs, and we presume it happens, [to make sure] that everyone is aware that the match is being streamed. The cameras have got pretty good audio as well, so it’s making sure people know that they can be heard as well.
“The clubs can make decisions on how public the streams are, so they can also determine them to be unlisted.”
It’s hard to shake the prevailing thought that Devine’s story would slot perfectly into Jon Ronson’s 2015 book So, You’ve Been Publicly Shamed about the cruelty of social media and its insatiable thirst for a mass puritanical pile-on. The next thought for The Spin was “there but for the grace of God go I”. Who among us can honestly say they haven’t done something soul-crushingly embarrassing or bewilderingly out of character on the field of play, in the heat of the moment?
More widely, isn’t one of the joys of playing amateur cricket the escapism it offers? The eight or so hours where the outside world drifts away, your phone is stuffed in your shoe back in the pavilion and real life can’t get you. Knee laughs as I put this to him, responding that he believes FrogBox adds to this sanctity as it ensures those special individual and team moments that happen on a weekly basis are preserved.
“Of course you get the odd player who gets given out and is immediately ripping off the pads and re-watching their decision, but our founding principles were much more guided by building cricket communities and fan engagement. Certainly that was our angle. Other companies out there come from more of a high performance and analytics world but ours was always more about connection. That parents, family and friends who can’t be at the game can still feel part of it.
“We also thought about the second and third XIs who don’t always get to actually watch the first XI play. They get to train with them but they never get to see them in action and vice versa. The various sides are then able to consume the other games, watch it from an away ground and so on, that creates a lot more of that kind of special camaraderie at clubs.”
Still, as well as the highs, the lows are captured too. Has Knee himself played in a FrogBox streamed game? “I don’t play so much any more but certainly the local side I play for has FrogBox and I’ve been streamed doing some horrific things, getting out to very poor balls and all that type of stuff. It always gets a decent laugh around the place.”
Professional cricket is being commodified wherever you look. It fits that this bleeds into the amateur game. One thing Knee says lingers long after the end of our conversation. “There is a sort of saying going around … that if it didn’t happen on FrogBox … did it even happen?”
As much as Knee can point to how the livestreaming of the amateur game can bring clubs together and capture golden moments for posterity it is hard to shake the sense that as some things are gained, others, perhaps, are lost. “Look in the book,” the old cricketing adage goes. How long before this is replaced by “Check the streams”? All too soon for Brian Devine.
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