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.
Crusaders Australia
Crusaders Australia is a wandering cricket team founded by Swan Richards OAM, David Richards OAM and the late Ray Steele and the former Australian wicket keeper, late Ben Barnett in 1977 who undertake bi-annual tours around to help facilitate the development of promising Australian cricketers and the Outright foundation which helps the youth development and the long form of the game, that is Test Cricket by pairing these young men with and against some first class players. They play against some of the major schools around Melbourne every week.