Cricket in Australia
In 2007, "The Age" reported that a survey by Sweeney Sports had found that 69% of the Australian public have an interest in cricket, second to none. Cricket is often known as Australia's national sport due to its equal popularity in all parts of the country. Cricket is also a mass participation sport in Australia: a census conducted on behalf of Cricket Australia found that in the 2003–04 season there were 471,329 participants in Australian cricket programmes and competitions, including 47,780 female participants.
In 2015–16, a record 1,300,000 Australians played formal, organised cricket during the year, an increase of nine percent over the previous year, making cricket Australia's biggest participant sport.
List of Australia national cricket captains
Australia participated in the first Test match in cricket in 1877, the first One Day International in 1971 (both against England) and the first Twenty20 international in 2005 (against New Zealand). In addition to officially sanctioned international matches and tours organised by the Australian Cricket Board (now known as Cricket Australia), there have been two major rebel Australian sides. In the 1970s many of Australia's leading players signed up for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket and played in a number of SuperTests against other international sides. Then in the mid-1980s there were two rebel Australian tours to South Africa, which was at that time banned from official competition because of the apartheid regime then in force there. The captains of those Australian sides are also listed below.