Cricket in Australia
Cricket has been played in Australia for over 210 years. The first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803 and a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the infant colony. Intercolonial cricket in Australia started with a visit by cricketers from Victoria to Tasmania in February 1851. The match was played in Launceston on 11–12 February with Tasmania winning by 3 wickets.
Sport in Australia
According to the National Cricket Census, a record 1,311,184 people played Cricket across Australia in 2015–16, an 8.5 percent 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. Club and community participation jumped 9.5 percent to 454,657 during the same period, with juniors aged 5‐12 years making up 59.4 percent of all 2015‐16 participants.