Cricket in Australia
A record 1,311,184 people played cricket across Australia in 2015–16, an 8.5 per cent increase on 2014–15 – placing cricket at No.1 as the current top participation sport in Australia. Women participation also reached record figures in 2015–16, growing nine percent to 314,936 players. According to Cricket Australia's annual report of 2014–15, 1,208,360 Australians played formal, organised cricket during the year, an increase of nine percent over the previous year. Separately, official audience data shows that 93.6% of Australians watched at least some cricket on TV in 2010–11 calendar year.
List of World Series Cricket international five-wicket hauls
Formed by Australian business man Kerry Packer following the refusal of the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) to accept the bid of Packer's Channel Nine to gain exclusive television rights to Australia's Test matches, World Series Cricket involved matches between WSC Australia XI, WSC World XI and WSC West Indies. The teams included leading Australian, English, Pakistani, South African and West Indian players, most notably England captain Tony Greig, West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, Australian captain Greg Chappell and former Australian captain Ian Chappell.