Cricket participation statistics show a sport with several different scales of activity. Sport England measured 358,600 people in England playing cricket at least twice in the 28 days before November 2023–24, while the ECB described 1.2 million participants in recreational cricket. In Australia, Cricket Australia recorded 1,558,821 people actively engaged in competitions or programs in 2017–18. These figures use different definitions and measurement periods, so they should be read as separate indicators rather than one combined total.
Contents
- England participation over time
- Club membership and recreational cricket
- The structure of English cricket
- Girls, women, and inclusion in England
- Australian participation at a glance
- Australian children, girls, and women
- Longer-term Australian participation trends
England participation over time
Sport England Active Lives used a specific participation measure: people who played cricket at least twice in the previous 28 days. The annual November readings below are percentages and estimated participant counts for England. They are not season totals and do not represent everyone who played at least once during a year.
| November period | Participation measure | Participants |
|---|---|---|
| 2015–16 | 0.8% | 364,600 |
| 2016–17 | 0.7% | 301,200 |
| 2017–18 | 0.7% | 292,900 |
| 2018–19 | 0.7% | 314,800 |
| 2019–20 | 0.4% | 195,700 |
| 2020–21 | 0.5% | 229,100 |
| 2021–22 | 0.8% | 353,000 |
| 2022–23 | 0.7% | 340,300 |
| 2023–24 | 0.8% | 358,600 |
Source: Sport England Active Lives.
The highest percentage in this series was 0.8%, recorded in November 2015–16, November 2021–22, and November 2023–24. The highest count was 364,600 in November 2015–16. The lowest percentage was 0.4% in November 2019–20, when the measured count was 195,700. The next reading rose to 0.5%, or 229,100 participants, in November 2020–21.
The later readings returned to the earlier percentage range. Sport England recorded 353,000 participants in November 2021–22, 340,300 in November 2022–23, and 358,600 in November 2023–24. The corresponding participation percentages were 0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.8%. This sequence describes the measured participation indicator for each November period; it does not establish why the figures changed.
Club membership and recreational cricket
Sport England also reported club membership among cricket participants using two different participation bases. For people who played at least twice in the previous 28 days, club membership was 83.8% in November 2017–18, 72.4% in November 2018–19, 69.9% in November 2019–20, 73.4% in November 2020–21, 70.7% in November 2021–22, 77.1% in November 2022–23, and 76.4% in November 2023–24.
Among people who played at least once in the previous 12 months, the reported club-membership figures were 47.6% in November 2017–18, 41.6% in November 2018–19, 49.1% in November 2019–20, 53.2% in November 2020–21, 55.0% in November 2021–22, 56.0% in November 2022–23, and 51.3% in November 2023–24.
| November period | Club membership: at least twice in 28 days | Club membership: at least once in 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–18 | 83.8% | 47.6% |
| 2018–19 | 72.4% | 41.6% |
| 2019–20 | 69.9% | 49.1% |
| 2020–21 | 73.4% | 53.2% |
| 2021–22 | 70.7% | 55.0% |
| 2022–23 | 77.1% | 56.0% |
| 2023–24 | 76.4% | 51.3% |
Source: Sport England Active Lives.
The two columns should not be treated as interchangeable. One describes club membership among more frequent recent participants, while the other includes anyone who played at least once during the previous 12 months. The second measure reached 56.0% in November 2022–23 and stood at 51.3% in November 2023–24.
The ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy gave a broader recreational-cricket picture: 1.2 million participants, 195,000 fixtures, 5,704 active clubs, and 43,454 teams. It also counted 70,000 people volunteering in recreational cricket clubs. These figures describe the ECB’s stated recreational-cricket landscape and use a different scope from the Sport England November survey.
The structure of English cricket
The ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy divided the 43,454 teams into several groups. There were 20,830 open-age teams and 14,794 junior teams. The strategy also counted 2,602 women’s teams and 2,496 girls’ teams. These categories describe team structures within the strategy’s recreational-cricket figures.
The strategy reported 100,000 people taking part in All Stars and Dynamos, two participation programs aimed at introducing children to cricket. It also recorded 158 Disability Champion clubs. A further 1,700 clubs participated annually in Get Set Weekend. Together, these figures show several routes into the sport beyond the general participation count, including junior programs, disability-focused club activity, and organized club events.
The number of active clubs, teams, fixtures, volunteers, and program participants should be kept separate. A person may be represented in a program count and a wider recreational-participant count, while a team or fixture is an activity unit rather than a person. The supplied ECB figures do not provide a basis for adding these categories into a new total.
Girls, women, and inclusion in England
The ECB State of Equity in Cricket Report 2025 reported that 30,627 girls took part in All Stars and Dynamos in 2025. Of those girls, 8,363 received bursaries, and those bursaries represented 43% of all bursaries. The report also said that 750 cricket clubs had Period Dignity dispensers and sanitary bins installed free of charge.
These 2025 figures use a different date and source from the older ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy figures. The 30,627 girls recorded in the 2025 equity report should therefore not be substituted for the earlier figure of 100,000 people taking part in All Stars and Dynamos. The two statements have different populations, dates, and reporting contexts.
The team counts in the Thriving Clubs Strategy provide another measure of gender participation in organized cricket: 2,602 women’s teams and 2,496 girls’ teams. They sit alongside 14,794 junior teams and 20,830 open-age teams, but the dataset does not state whether teams in these categories overlap. No combined team total should be inferred beyond the reported 43,454 teams.
Australian participation at a glance
Cricket Australia’s National Cricket Census recorded 1,558,821 Australians actively engaged in cricket competitions or programs in 2017–18. That total included 854,951 participants in cricket programs in schools and 703,870 players in regular competitions or club-based programs. Cricket Australia said females made up 30% of the participant base, and that six in every 10 new participants were female.
Earlier Australian figures used different participation definitions and years. Cricket Australia said 1,311,184 people played cricket in 2015–16, an increase of 8.5% on 2014–15. In that 2015–16 count, women’s cricket participation reached 314,936 players, females represented 24% of all cricketers, and club and community participation reached 454,657.
Cricket Australia also reported that juniors aged 5–12 made up 59.4% of all 2015–16 participants. School participation grew 7.5% in that year, while indoor participation grew 9.9%. These are growth measures for the specific Australian categories reported by Cricket Australia, not changes that can be directly compared with the Sport England series.
Australian children, girls, and women
Cricket Australia’s Cricket Census reported that total registered participation grew from 598,931 to 627,693 in 2022–23. Registered participation in Cricket Clubs and Woolworths Cricket Blast rose from 393,921 to 409,642. Women and Girls registrations increased from 40,143 to 50,377, while Woolworths Cricket Blast registrations increased from 56,464 to 69,879.
The same census reported that the number of children aged 5–12 increased from 116,000 to 129,000 in 2022–23. Junior club cricket registrations remained stable at 108,100 children. Girls represented 27% of all Woolworths Cricket Blast registered participants.
The census also recorded different changes for South Asian children aged 5–12: girls increased by 60% in 2022–23 and boys increased by 16%. These percentages describe the changes reported for those groups and do not supply a new total number of South Asian participants.
Another Cricket Australia participation report said registered participation rose 3.8% to 709,957 in 2019–20. Female participation rose 11.4% to 76,400, and Woolworths Cricket Blast participation rose 14% to 59,300. Girls’ and women’s share of all registered participants reached almost 11% in 2019–20. Girls’ participation in Woolworths Cricket Blast and junior competitions increased 25%, while junior retention improved from 64% to 76%.
The Australian 2016–17 report said cricket participation grew by more than 9% to more than 1.4 million. Female participation was more than 27% of that total, and nearly 400,000 females played cricket. The increase represented about 80,000 additional female players compared with the previous year. That report also recorded 363 new teams across 46 new all-girl competitions.
Longer-term Australian participation trends
The 2016–17 Cricket Australia report described an initial $1.5 million investment in the Growing Cricket for Girls Fund. It said the total investment would be $6 million over four years. The plan also set a target of building 500 female-friendly pavilions by 2022 at a cost of $1 billion. These are reported investment and plan figures, not participation totals.
Cricket Australia reported 581 girls’ and women’s teams in 2015–16. It later reported 363 new teams across 46 new all-girl competitions in 2016–17. The two figures describe different measures: one is a count of girls’ and women’s teams in 2015–16, and the other is newly created teams across new competitions in 2016–17.
The same 2016–17 report said Indigenous player numbers rose more than 47% to more than 54,000. Because both the percentage and the player total are expressed with “more than,” they should be read as approximate reported thresholds rather than exact values.
Taken together, the Australian figures cover school programs, club competitions, registered participation, junior cricket, Woolworths Cricket Blast, women and girls, and Indigenous players. The counts cannot be combined without a common definition and a way to identify overlap. The clearest comparisons remain within the same Cricket Australia report and measurement period: for example, 598,931 to 627,693 registered participants in the 2022–23 census, or 40,143 to 50,377 Women and Girls registrations in that same census.