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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Cricket Overtakes AFL As Australia's Most Popular Participation Sport

Cricket "returned fire" on the Australian Football League's expansion to a national women’s competition, "overtaking the football code to emerge as the country’s most popular participation sport," according to Scott Walsh of THE ADVERTISER. A National Cricket Census, released by Cricket Australia on Tuesday, reveals the sport took an 8.5% jump to 1.31 million participants during the '15-16 summer. The number is 600,000 more than the AFL’s 1.25 million participants in '15, "according to figures recorded by the same research company as cricket’s latest audit." Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said, "Cricket is clearly the sport of choice for many Australians and we’re proud to be billed as one of the biggest participation sports in the country." A key factor in cricket’s spike "is the introduction at the elite level of the Women’s Big Bash League under hugely popular domestic Twenty20 format last summer." Womens’ numbers for players and officials across all levels grew by 9%, to 315,000 -- 24% "of the sport’s national participation." The increase includes an 18% lift in female participants and "strong growth in school and entry-level formats" (THE ADVERTISER, 8/23).

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