Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
- Two-year extended partnership between PCA and The Cricket Draft
- Game will expand to all domestic men’s and women’s competitions in 2025
- Funds from collective rights agreements invested back into PCA membership
- John Welch: “Working with the PCA is a real privilege and central to our mission”
The PCA continues to build on its pioneering work in representing the collective rights of its membership, by securing another long-term partnership agreement with the UK’s leading fantasy cricket platform, The Cricket Draft.
This will take the collaboration between the two into its fifth year, after establishing a mutually valuable relationship to the benefit of both the players and The Cricket Draft.
From 2021, players have signed a collective rights document to allow the PCA to negotiate commercial deals on their behalf, and a subsequent first-of-its-kind agreement gave The Cricket Draft a license to use player data in-game. The same deal was extended to run for a further 24-month period after a hugely successful summer for the ‘free to play’ fantasy cricket game, which also saw the launch of the brand new Cricket Draft app.
Funds raised from the collective rights deal are being invested back into the PCA membership. Over the last few years, the agreement with The Cricket Draft helped to facilitate social media and mental health workshops with players.
The Cricket Draft launched in 2021, with a view to becoming the go-to fantasy cricket game in the UK and to bring fans closer to the sport. The game has grown significantly year on year, becoming the most played fantasy cricket game in the UK, in quick time, nearing 50,000 users having played the game since its inauguration.
This year saw the launch of The Cricket Draft App as it continues to take fan interaction to the next level. With The Cricket Draft’s mission being to increase engagement and raise the profile of domestic cricket in the UK, the partnership with PCA ensures the game is run for the benefit of all players as well as the fans. The Cricket Draft ran games for the Vitality County Championship, Vitality Blast, Metro Bank One Day Cup and the Charlotte Edwards Cup in 2024 and will expand across all domestic men’s and women’s competitions in 2025.
PCA Director of Cricket Operations, Rich Hudson, said: “The last five years working with The Cricket Draft have been very enjoyable as we have successfully grown the collective rights of our membership over that period. The game creates a fantastic link between the fans and the players and I’m sure will go from strength to strength in 2025. The fact that the money raised from partnerships such as this can be invested back into the membership through our Personal Development and Welfare Programme is really significant.”
The Cricket Draft Co-Founder, John Welch, said: “Working with the PCA is a real privilege and is absolutely central to our mission at The Cricket Draft. Supporting players ensures that we can help give back to the game we love. When we set out back in May 2021 to build The Cricket Draft, we had a vision to create a game that would be for the benefit of the sport; both in terms of fan enjoyment as well as continuing to champion domestic competitions. We are delighted that, alongside the PCA, we have been able to do this and we are exceptionally excited about the partnership and what we can achieve together in the future.
“Summer 2025 is sure to be bigger and better than ever before, with the launch of the website alongside our new App and plenty more new games in the pipeline – we can’t wait to get going.”
The Cricket Draft is totally FREE TO PLAY and is the ultimate test of your cricketing & managerial skills. You can download the App and play here.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Stay ahead of the latest cricket industry trends by subscribing to our free cricexec “daily briefing” newsletter.
Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
