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The Professional Cricketers’ Association

After a lengthy pitching process, which contained multiple international creative agencies, we successfully won the rights to develop a new corporate website for The Professional Cricketers’ Association (The PCA).

The PCA was formed in 1967 to represent and improve conditions for professional cricketers across England and Wales. Former England international Fred Rumsey highlighted to senior players and secretaries from the 17 first-class counties, that salaries were behind the national average, and contracts provided no promise of winter employment.

Breaking

Boundaries

On September 4th 1967, 16 representatives from each county (Worcestershire were on an overseas tour) met with Jimmy Hill and Cliff Lloyd of the Professional Footballers’ Association to discuss the proposed association.

Deciding to call it the Cricketers’ Association (it would become the Professional Cricketers Association in 1996), Northamptonshire’s Roger Prideaux was elected Chairman before resigning in 1968 and was replaced by Warwickshire’s Jack Bannister. John Arlott served as President from its formation, through to 1991.

Harold Goldblatt, a London-based accountant working for the Association, lobbied for a minimum wage to the Test and County board, with £4,000 a year for each player being agreed in 1975.

Goldblatt and Lawrie Doffman (Association legal advisor) also drew up the first standard cricket contract, challenged county registration regulations and negotiated a £400 player fee with the introduction of the John Player League in 1969, which ran on their traditional Sunday day off.

As keen sports fans, the opportunity to work on projects that we have a passion and interest in is really exciting and we couldn’t wait to get started. The PCA was going through a very large rebranding process at the time and we tied the website development in with the new brand, which resulted in a First Class website.

MY PCA

The Player Portal That Has Changed The Game

We sat down with the client and came up with the idea of creating a personal Player Portal titled ‘My PCA‘. This was a locked away profile area on the website that was only accessible by being a member of The PCA, and each login profile was tailored to the individual player.

On login, each player would be directed to their ‘My PCA’ profile page. This would allow the player access to all key information about them and the PCA, live MVP Ranking stats (supplied by Opta Sports), ability to contact their Personal Development Manager, latest Members Offers, as well as many other key features that County and International players would require.

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OPTA STATS

Live MVP Stats

In 2007 The PCA launched its Most Valuable Player Rankings (MVP). The PCA MVP is the most reliable benchmark in the game, a statistic that for the first time combines all aspects of a player’s game and gives them a ranking in relation to his peers. The PCA MVP is unique in sports statistics. It is an evaluation of the players, designed by the players. It is their game, it is their statistic. MVP is a core concept in American sport and with its new player ratings, the PCA has seen MVP quickly integrated into the fabric of English cricket.

We worked with Opta Sports and the PCA to provide a specific MVP Rankings area on the website that housed every rankings table for each competition cricketers’ play. Many data feeds have been integrated to supply these live statistics.

WINNERS

Championing Cricketers

The prestigious NatWest PCA Awards recognise the achievements of the players throughout the domestic and international season, with the headline awards being selected by current players themselves.

This was a key feature of the website that the PCA required and we developed an interactive scrollable image carousel that showcased all the previous winners of the award.

We Attend The Natwest PCA Awards Dinner

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TRANSFER LISTING

Enter The Changing Room

To help players who have been released from their county or seeking fresh opportunities via a loan move, we worked with the PCA to introduce the ‘Changing Room’, an initiative created to keep players in the game via one single marketplace.

The new service, which is available to playing PCA members, is straightforward and accessible by counties via their Head Coach and Director of Cricket. Players can simply register to be placed on the Changing Room by completing one simple form which will position them alongside other players looking for opportunities.

The Changing Room has changed the way we manage career status. It's provided a simple solution to find new opportunities and to allow clubs to contact us directly"

Rich HudsonPlayer Contracts Advisor
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WINNERS

The PCA Mobile App

In February 2018, we developed and launched the first ever dual platform PCA app, which incorporates all key information in a digestible format, opening up an extra communication line between players and the PCA.

Each member has a unique log-in which will see them gain access to their My PCA area. For the first time ever their Personal Development Plans will be an editable, online document and be accessible via the PCA app. Which gives the players the ability to update and keep track of their development away from the cricket field.

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4.8

Based On 24 Reviews
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“The Blayney Partnership gave us a professional, bespoke service on the design, and implementation of our new website. All our ideas were crafted in such a way that suited our needs and vision of our company. we are looking forward to a long and rewarding partnership with the Blayney Team to meet all our digital marketing needs"

Luke ReynoldsMarketing Manager