HCLTech bags deal to transform Cricket Australia's digital platform

Indian IT company HCLTech has bagged a deal to transform Cricket Australia’s digital platform with automation and artificial intelligence (AI), the company said in an exchange filing.

Michael Horton, executive vice president and country manager for Australia and New Zealand at HCLTech, said “We are excited to have been chosen as a digital transformation partner once again by Cricket Australia. Technology is transforming how we access and engage with sports and HCLTech is committed to delivering future-ready solutions to support Cricket Australia’s objective to deliver seamless experiences to its stakeholders and communities.”

The IT company noted that they would implement automation, analytics, and devops tools to ensure that the Cricket Australia Live and PlayCricket apps maintain their popularity among fans. It is worth noting that financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Cricket Australia is the national governing body for the game and HCLTech has been its digital transformation partner since 2019. As part of the new agreement, HCLTech will enable Cricket Australia to deliver immersive digital services across the world.

Donald Elliott, General Manager at Australian Cricket Technology, said, “Engagement with our fans and community is of the utmost importance for Cricket Australia. We are focused on keeping people engaged in the sport from the moment they first pick up a bat and ball or watch a game.”

“HCLTech has already supported us in transforming our tech stack and improving Australian Cricket’s participant and fan digital experiences. The extension of this partnership and the world-class technology it provides will help cricket maintain and improve its place as the leading sport in the country,” said the GM of the Australian Cricket Technology.

The company announced in a release that HCLTech has previously worked on digital transformation of Cricket Australia’s digital assets including cricket.com.au, the Cricket Australia Live app and MyCricket (now PlayCricket). The company has also digitised many of Cricket Australia’s community cricket processes.

The IT company’s exchange filing also added that the Cricket Australia Live app annually delivers over 100 million sessions, the highest among summer sporting applications in the country. Over the course of the partnership, Cricket Australia’s Live app store ratings increased from 2.2 stars to 4.7 stars.