Census results reveal cricket's changing face

Well over a million people are now playing cricket in Australia, cementing it as the country’s highest participation sport.

New independent figures released by Cricket Australia today revealed that a record 1.2 million Australians participated in cricket in the past year, an almost 10 per cent jump from 2013-14.

Female, schools and junior programs experienced the highest rates of growth according to the Australian Cricket Census, with nearly one in four of cricket’s participants now female, up around 20 per cent on the previous year.

Specialist researcher Street Ryan also found participation among indigenous Australians and multicultural populations also grew, reaching 26,427 and 146,658 participants, respectively.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said the results demonstrate that cricket is a sport of choice across Australia and the approach to attracting, developing and keeping people in the game is continuing to improve.

“We are very pleased with the nine per cent overall increase, to a total of 1.2 million Australians who are now playing cricket,” Sutherland said.

“With an aspiration to be Australia’s favourite sport, and a sport for all Australians, it is pleasing to see the continued increase in diversity across our sport.

“Female participants are now nearly a quarter of our playing base and whilst this growth is something that we are particularly proud of, diversity will continue to be an area of strong focus, including the desire to see significant increases in Indigenous and multicultural participant numbers.”

Key findings from the 2014-15 National Cricket Census include:

•             1,208,360 total participants (up 9 per cent on 2013-14)

•             628,826 school participants

•             415,104 club & community participants

•             164,430 indoor participants

Club & Community cricket

•             24,961 teams

•             23,111 traditional 11-a-side teams

•             1,850 modified teams

•             10% growth in the Junior Participation Pathway

•             37,683 MILO in2CRICKET

•             13,227 MILO T20 Blast

•             73,686 junior age 9-12 yrs.

•             15% growth in school cricket

Diversity

•             290,566 female participants

•             Growth of 18% from 2013-14

•             Women and girls make up 24% of all participants

•             26,427 indigenous participants

•             146,658 multicultural participants

•             10,292 participants with a disability

The release of the 2014-15 Census coincides with Australian cricket’s annual participation campaign that calls on Australians to sign up to play cricket in 2015.

Sutherland paid tribute to the volunteers right across the country who had helped grow the sport.

“We are incredibly grateful for the work of cricket’s 50,000 plus volunteers who contribute millions of hours each year to meet the day-to-day challenges of supporting and growing our participant base,” he said.

“We firmly believe that our participant base is the lifeblood of our sport – and we remain committed to supporting and growing our participant base so as to build cricket’s strong connection to the Australian community.     

“Among other things, cricket plays an important role in helping men, women and children from all different backgrounds to lead healthy, active lifestyles.”

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The Australian Cricket Census

The 2014-15 Australian Cricket Census is the 13th analysis of cricket participation.

A ‘participant’ is defined by the Australian Cricket Census as someone who participates in at least four sessions of a formal cricket program.

The 2014-15 census has been compiled by specialist researcher Street Ryan, with the cooperative efforts of Cricket Australia and each of the eight states and territory cricket associations.

The organisations are responsible for recording the number of programs, teams and registered players within their state/territory for each cricket program area.

Street Ryan is responsible for the collection of participation figures for Australia’s major sports, including AFL, NRL, ARU, basketball, hockey and golf.

Cricket Australia’s junior participation programs are supported by Nestlé and the Australian Government.

Cricket Australia works closely with the Australian Government, through the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), to maximise participation opportunities.

As part of the ASC’s new participation investment model, developed under its Play.Sport.Australia strategy, cricket has been categorised in the highest funded group of sports because of its significant participation footprint. 

Cricket Australia has also partnered with the ASC’s Sporting Schools program to help provide a quality sporting experience for children and to foster a lifelong interest in the sport.

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