CricHQ to expand presence in India; hire 400 people in 3 yrs

NEW DELHI: Tech firm CricHQ, promoted by former New Zealand cricketers Simon Baker, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum, plans to make India its home ground, hiring over 400 people over the next three years. The firm, founded in 2010 by Baker, Fleming and McCullum, offers live scoring and competition management solutions via cloud and mobile technology. Besides, Fleming, and McCullum, CricHQ's investors include cricketers Ravi Ashwin, Albie Morkel, Faf Du Plessis, Graeme Swann and Mike Hussey.

"Today, we have 100 employees, of which 70 are in India in Chennai and Kochi. We are about to open an office in Bangalore. Over the next three years, we will have about 520 employees and of these, 500 will be based here," CricHQ CEO Simon Baker told PTI. The workforce will be responsible for various roles across product development and sales.

"India is a cricket crazy nation. It has a huge following for the game and we see India as the biggest growth market. Hence, we will staff it sufficiently with senior management and a large team under them," he said. Baker added that the company will continue to have a small team in New Zealand and few people across other countries as well.

CricHQ has 140 clients at present, which include the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, Kerala Cricket Association and a few other state-level cricket bodies. It has also launched a social networking app to help fans connect with their favourite players. Apart from statistics from various matches, users will be able to "follow" their favourite players to receive broadcasts whenever they play cricket or share status updates.

It has partnered with Nokia to launch the app across Lumia, Asha and Nokia X devices exclusively during the ongoing IPL season. It will be available across other platforms after the IPL season ends. It has also partnered UCWeb, where the browser will endorse CricHQ directly through its UC Browser user base in India. "The app combines social network features along with cricket information. We want to promote grass root cricket where scores of even the smallest clubs is available. That will also help promote players, who may go unnoticed otherwise, to rise in their careers," Baker said.