Cricket takes over AFL in participation as Australia's No. 1 sport

Thanks Mike. Agree with your comments as well. In saying that I am not pointing the finger at Cricket Australia, just merely stating that all sports exaggerate their "participation" figures but in this case, these figures are the most exaggerated of the lot due to having such a low bar for being counted as a participant.

Sydneysider Very pereceptive on your behalf . It's definitely BS as numbers have declined in cricket and other sports due to the technological gaming age which now is a sport in itself . A large proportion of kids and young adults lead sedentiary lifestyles in front of a consul , physical sport simply is not on their agenda . You make a great point about baby boomers , aging population yet increased participants...... what a load of rubbish . Our poor performance at the Olympics also confirms sports performance is on the decline in Australia . I have a suspicion that a lot of athletes would prefer a successful celebrity profile instead of a winners medal.

There's 'plenty' and then there's quality. A big difference.

"More than half of cricket’s participants are counted through school programs of at least four formal sessions, which is similar to the AFL." More than half of the participants only did 4 formal sessions..... 1.3 million divided by 2 = 650,000... so let's say 700,000 only did 4 formal sessions. the bar for being counted as a participant is very low. Anyway, all sports in Australia quote participation figures that are lies.

I'd disagree. You 're more likely to find an AFL club in Brisbane than it is to find a Rugby League club in Perth or Melbourne. As someone who lives in 'NRL' territory, there is plenty of AFL clubs and awareness here.

Yeah thats interesting, when I played cricket as a kid there weren't much in the way of subcontinental kids playing. I suppose players like Khawaja and Ammed have shown that you don't have to be Anglo to be an Australian player, that's probably helped get rid of the whitewash in participation. That or in the past a lot of Kids with cricket-obsessed subcontinental parents purposely moved away from cricket to rebel against their parents haha.

Like that there was no chance that AFL was the most popular sport to play. Given how much of the country doesn't play AFL or is even interested. Auskick has much to answer for.

In a lot of cases the kids are participating in a variety of sports so aren't unique to one sport only. How many kids might do a school program that fits the criteria, play mid week basketball, some kids play footy one day and soccer the next on the weekends and come summer play cricket. Ideally that's great for kids evolving to the sport that fits them best - or - in the case of Kyle Chalmers taking up swimming to help stay fit for footy and suddenly find himself at the Olympics winning gold (okay - won't happen every day of the week but perhaps a backhander to the AIS and AOC that the more you focus and spend on seeking Olympic glory perhaps the more you shoot yourself in the foot). re Cricket - what is clear when I see the juniors is so many kids from Indian, Pak, SL and Bangladeshi back grounds are joining clubs now - their parents still tend to be holding back from joining in but the kids are getting involved. Just need to coax some more of the parents into coaching and helping more. And these kids - generally - don't tend to be playing the other sports at least not initially.

"Cricket has overtaken Australian Rules football to become the country’s most popular sport in terms of participation." Lol there is so much wrong with that opening sentence.

You underestimated the amount of kids who haven't played sport at all finally joining a club. On average the amount of kids playing a sport exceed the number of adults doing so, and during the last 10 years there has been a dip the amount of kids taking part in sport because of various other factors. That said, the rise in Cricket is only made possible because of the big dip in the late 2000s as our national team went off the cliff. The Big Bash has arguably helped increase Youth Participation, and participation overall has grown.

Meanwhile park cricket is dying the inner and not so inner west of Sydney.

"More than half of cricket’s participants are counted through school programs of at least four formal sessions, which is similar to the AFL." Cricket has growth in participants. AFL has growth in participants. Football/Soccer has growth in participants. Basketball has growth in participants. Rugby has growth in participants. Rugby League has growth in participants. Yet we only have a population of 24 million..... and an aging population at that... I don't believe any of these "increase in participants" census. Obviously there will be double counting with some kids playing both a football code in winter and cricket/basketball etc.. in summer but these numbers are complete fantasy.... Increase in spectators - yes. Increase in crowds - yes. Increase in money and TV deals - yes. Increase in "participants" - LOL.... yeah... every major sport in Australia has an increase in "participants".

Ironic the reference to the indoor cricket participants - although I know in the past I was playing both outdoor and indoor and so would have been counted twice. But good on cricket - especially in the multicultural aspect as cricket in Australia has been perhaps the least ethnically diverse sport at the top end. (compare even to tennis). The irony of referencing the AFL is that in many situations the cricketers and footballers share the same venue - handing the keys over every 6 months - so, that goes well for funding requests to Govt re the facilities. (and of course most footballers I grew up with played cricket across summer, footy over winter).