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\u201cM<\/span>onday to Friday, people are sharing the content,\u201d says Rob Knee, chief executive of the cricket livestreaming company FrogBox. You can say that again. The story and accompanying footage of Brian Devine\u2019s apparent finger-clicking chicanery at Saltburn Cricket<\/a> Club went around the world last week. When Piers Morgan and<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d much rather see some outstanding catches, centuries and sixes being the cause of those viral moments,\u201d Knee tells The Spin down the phone from Melbourne with the \u201cClicky Ponting\u201d 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.<\/p>\n As well as Cricket Australia, Cricket Scotland and Netherlands Cricket, FrogBox partners with the England and Wales Cricket Board. \u201cWe have access to their live scoring data, that then powers the on-screen graphics and also allows us to then automate highlights.\u201d<\/p>\n Knee says that FrogBox are expanding. They have posted more than 3m cricket clips online and their kits (RRP \u00a32,380) 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\u2019s first run or wicket captured. Special moments such as hat-tricks and centuries live on not just in memory but as a permanent memento.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen 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<\/a>. Thankfully the clips that tend to do well are hugely positive.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the livestreaming of amateur cricket matches throws up some thorny issues about what exactly constitutes a private and a public space. \u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019s making sure people know that they can be heard as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe clubs can make decisions on how public the streams are, so they can also determine them to be unlisted.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to shake the prevailing thought that Devine\u2019s story would slot perfectly into Jon Ronson\u2019s 2015 book So, You\u2019ve Been Publicly Shamed <\/em>about the cruelty of social media and its insatiable thirst for a mass puritanical pile-on. The next thought for The Spin was \u201cthere but for the grace of God go I\u201d. Who among us can honestly say they haven\u2019t done something soul-crushingly embarrassing or bewilderingly out of character on the field of play, in the heat of the moment?<\/p>\n More widely, isn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n