Play-Cricket has no native Google Calendar integration. You have to bridge the two: either as a one-off manual import, or as a live iCal feed driven by your club's own ECB-issued API key. Most clubs end up wanting the live feed.
Why bother syncing Play-Cricket to Google Calendar at all?
Reason 1. Rescheduled fixtures get communicated automatically. The single biggest source of "did anyone tell us?" WhatsApp chaos at clubs is rain rearrangements.
Reason 2. Parents can plan around junior fixtures. Parents live in their calendars.
Reason 3. Captains stop being the message-relay. Without a calendar feed, the captain becomes a human SMS gateway every Wednesday.
Method A: manual one-off import (no API key needed)
Step 1. Export your Play-Cricket fixtures as CSV
Use the manual export route from how to export Play-Cricket fixtures to CSV. You want columns: subject, start_date, start_time, end_date, end_time, location, description.
Step 2. Create a dedicated calendar
- Click the + next to "Other calendars" in the left sidebar
- Choose Create new calendar
- Name it e.g. "Eastleigh CC 1st XI 2026"
Step 3. Import the CSV
- In Google Calendar, click Settings (cog icon)
- Choose Import & export
- Click Select file from your computer and pick your CSV
- In the Add to calendar dropdown, pick the calendar you just created
- Click Import
Step 4. Share the calendar
- In Google Calendar settings, click the calendar's name
- Scroll to Access permissions for events
- Make available to public (or share with specific email addresses)
- Copy the Public address in iCal format
- Share that URL on WhatsApp or the club newsletter
Method B: live iCal feed using your club's API key
What you need first
- Your club's ECB-issued Play-Cricket API key. Request from ECB Play-Cricket Support.
- A tool that polls Play-Cricket and serves an iCal feed.
- A URL where the iCal feed lives.
How the feed works end to end
The tool calls the Play-Cricket API for your club's fixtures using your key, transforms the response into iCal VEVENT blocks, and serves the resulting .ics file at a stable URL. Calendar apps re-check that URL every few hours (Google's interval is roughly every 8 to 24 hours; Apple is similar).
Step-by-step setup
- Get your API key from ECB Play-Cricket Support.
- Pass the key to your sync tool.
- Configure which teams' fixtures the feed includes.
- Test the feed URL. You should see plain-text iCal data starting with BEGIN:VCALENDAR.
- Subscribe a test calendar.
- Share the URL with members.
- Trigger a test reschedule. Confirm the change flows through within 24 hours.
Manual vs live feed, side by side
| Factor | Manual CSV import | Live iCal feed |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 min | 1 hour, once |
| Effort after setup | Re-import every change | Zero |
| Handles reschedules automatically | No | Yes |
| Handles late-added fixtures | No | Yes |
| Requires ECB API key | No | Yes |
| Multi-team scaling | Linear pain | Free |
| Recommended for | A one-week stop-gap | A whole season |
What about Apple Calendar and Outlook?
Both subscribe to the same iCal URL.
- Apple Calendar (Mac): File → New Calendar Subscription → paste URL.
- Apple Calendar (iPhone): Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Add Account → Other → Add Subscribed Calendar.
- Outlook (web): Add calendar → Subscribe from web → paste URL.
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