When KordaMentha attempted to retain key technology staff from CricHQ to get keep the website operating, the staff refused unless all of their colleagues were given what they were owed in unpaid wages. Eventually a deal was struck so that staff would receive some of the money they were owed.

​A three day outage for cricket technology company CricHQ's platforms only ended after technology staff struck a deal with receivers over unpaid wages for them and their colleagues.

On Friday night, hours before cricket clubs up and down the country were due to commence play, possibility on paper scoring sheets, CricHQ's platforms were brought online.

New Zealand Cricket had taken steps to warn clubs to prepare to score games without the widely-used technology.

SUPPLIED CricHQ founder Simon Baker resigned as chief executive shortly before receivers were appointed, but continued as a director of the company.

Employees that receivers KordaMentha wanted to continue to pay to get the technology running brokered a deal which would see their colleagues receive at least some of the money they are owed. Staff had not been paid since the start of September.

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Based in Kelburn in Wellington, CricHQ claims to record one in every 10 balls bowled in competitive cricket around the world, and counts some of cricket's greats among its shareholders.

MAARTEN HOLL/STUFF Former Black Cap captain Stephen Fleming and Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan examine the CricHQ scoring app at the Basin Reserve. Fleming was a shareholder in the company.

At the time receivers were called in the company was said to have raised more than $20 million in investment, including up to US$10m from Singaporean venture capital firm Tembusu in 2015.

But despite lofty ambitions the company was placed into receivership on October 17, after failing to secure new investment.

In the days following KordaMentha's appointment the company's website went offline.

Multiple sources have said that while KordaMentha attempted to get a core group of staff to continue to work to keep the website and apps operating, they refused to do so unless both they and their colleagues were given unpaid wages.

Initially the staff demanded full repayment of all backpay for all employees, but on Friday morning an agreement was reached which would see some payments made to all former employees, in return for around six staff to return to work.

Within hours the platform was back online. The company previously had more than 20 Wellington-based staff.

KordaMentha partner Brendon Gibson confirmed the outline of the deal.

"We as the receivers, with the support of the funders, have agreed to make some payments to some people to allow an opportunity to see if this business can be sold with the site operating."

Gibson said it was not unusual for receivers to be in a situation where employees were left out of pocket, although the difficulty with CricHQ was there was little that could be done to generate cash to continue to operate.

"We haven't got stock or debtors in this business, so we required funding for anything we were going to do, so we worked as quickly as possible with a range of stakeholders we had to manage to see if we could see if we could come to an arrangement with a range of people who were involved in this," Gibson said.

'Severe shortage of cash'

Gibson declined to comment on the exact nature of CricHQ's finances at the time of KordaMentha's appointment, but confirmed employees had not been paid for some time.

"You can work out that staff not being paid for six weeks prior to the receivership would indicate there was a severe shortage of cash."

Simon Baker, CricHQ's founder, resigned as chief executive shortly before the company was placed into receivership.

Gibson said because Baker remained as a director the company was still dealing with him, but the resignation happened before the company was appointed so it "wasn't a matter we had to deal with".

Sales process continues

Gibson declined to comment on whether KordaMentha was close to a deal to sell the company or its technology.

"We're running a process. The mere fact of the receivership has elicited a lot of response about people interested in the business. We're putting that into a process and working through all that at the moment.