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.
Futures League
Run by Cricket Australia, it is part of its development program and includes the various state and territory second XI teams, for the 2009–10 season onwards the tournament was renamed the Futures League because a change of rules restricting teams to only have three players over the age of 23; however, it is now six players. It was previously known as the ACB Cup, and changed to the Cricket Australia Cup when the Australian Cricket Board was renamed to Cricket Australia.