Youth cricket spans grassroots participation, club development and international competition. The available figures show one million children reached through England and Wales Cricket Board programmes and organised play in the latest reported year, 129,000 Australian children aged 5–12 registered in 2022–23, and major scoring records in the 2026 ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Contents
- Youth participation at a glance
- Confidence, activity and community
- Clubs, teams and junior pathways
- How children enter cricket
- Australia’s youth participation figures
- Under-19 World Cup history and records
Youth participation at a glance
The ECB Impact of Cricket Report recorded one million children playing cricket through ECB programmes, partner programmes or organised play in its latest reported year. That broad measure includes more than a single competition or registration system, so it is best read as a reach figure rather than a direct count of club members.
The ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy reported 1.2 million participants in recreational cricket. Its club network included 5,704 active clubs, 43,454 teams and 195,000 fixtures. The same strategy counted 70,000 volunteers, showing that youth cricket depends on a large adult support structure as well as players.
The team mix gives useful context for the junior share. Junior teams made up 36% of all teams, while women’s and girls’ teams together represented 13%. Open-age teams represented 51%. These percentages describe the ECB recreational-cricket structure reported in the strategy; they are not age-specific participation rates for every child reached by ECB programmes.
| Measure | Reported figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Children reached through ECB and organised play | 1 million | ECB Impact of Cricket Report |
| Recreational-cricket participants | 1.2 million | ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy |
| Active recreational clubs | 5,704 | ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy |
| Recreational teams | 43,454 | ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy |
| Recreational fixtures | 195,000 | ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy |
| Recreational-cricket volunteers | 70,000 | ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy |
The strategy also placed cricket second among men’s team sports by total participation and fifth among women’s team sports. Those rankings concern total participation, not only youth participation, but they help explain the size of the pathway available to young players.
Confidence, activity and community
Youth cricket statistics are not limited to registrations and match results. The ECB Impact of Cricket Report measured reported outcomes among participants, parents and volunteers. Among parents, 83% said their child’s confidence was boosted by taking part in All Stars and Dynamos. Among players, 80% said cricket kept them active in a way they would not otherwise be, and 78% said it helped them develop useful personal and professional skills.
The same report found that 92% of players said playing cricket made them feel part of the community. A further 83% said cricket made them appreciate people from different backgrounds. These are survey-based perceptions, so they should be understood as reported experiences rather than clinical or independently measured effects.
Volunteer experience was also included: 79% of volunteers said their volunteering had a positive impact on their community. Taken together, these figures describe several dimensions of youth cricket—physical activity, confidence, social connection and skill development—without claiming that every player experiences the game in the same way.
Accessibility was reflected in programme investment. The ECB Impact of Cricket Report recorded 526 recreational clubs funded to improve accessibility and welcome in a single year. The ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy counted 158 Disability Champion clubs. The two figures measure different things: one is a single-year funding count, while the other is the reported number of clubs in the strategy.
Clubs, teams and junior pathways
The ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy reported 14,794 junior teams, alongside 20,830 open-age teams, 2,602 women’s teams and 2,496 girls’ teams. This structure shows that youth cricket sits within a wider club ecosystem rather than operating as a separate activity. The strategy’s 36% share for junior teams is a proportion of the 43,454 total teams reported there.
The participation pipeline also includes dedicated entry programmes. All Stars and Dynamos reached 100,000 participants according to the ECB Thriving Clubs Strategy. The ECB Impact of Cricket Report separately recorded 717 new women’s and girls’ teams created in 2023. That increase represented 20% growth year on year.
The 717-team result is a development measure, while the 2,602 women’s teams and 2,496 girls’ teams are the strategy’s reported team counts. They should not be added together: the former describes newly created teams in 2023, while the latter describes the wider structure at the time covered by the strategy.
Youth cricket also has a substantial volunteer base. The reported 70,000 recreational-cricket volunteers include the adults who help clubs stage fixtures and sustain teams. In the All Stars programme, 4,136 Activators were recorded in the programme’s first-year account, and three-quarters were new to the game. That was associated with around 3,000 new coaches.
How children enter cricket
The ECB All Stars Cricket report recorded more than 37,000 children aged 5–8 taking part in year one. The programme operated across more than 1,500 centres, giving the early pathway a broad geographic footprint. More than seven in ten parents who signed up their children were new to their local club, while 70% of All Stars sessions received parental support.
The programme also reported that more than 1,500 children had the chance to meet their heroes or play on the pitch during the international summer. That figure describes an opportunity delivered through All Stars, not the number of all children in the programme.
Cricket Australia’s Participation Growth figures place the entry point at a similar early age: more than 90% of players start playing cricket by age 12. Its youth participation target was 210,000 registered participants aged 5–12 by 2027, framed as doubling the number of children playing cricket at the time of the target. The target is a forecast or goal, not an achieved historical count.
Cricket Australia also set a girls’ target to quadruple participation to 60,000 by 2027, alongside a target of 140,000 registered female participants across women’s and girls’ cricket. Its overall registered participation target was more than 850,000 by 2027. These targets should be kept separate from the 2022–23 census results below because they describe intended future levels rather than that season’s measured participation.
Australia’s youth participation figures
The Cricket Australia census report recorded 129,000 children aged 5–12 in 2022–23, up 11% year on year. Total registered participation reached 627,693, up 5% year on year. Registered participation in cricket clubs and Blast programmes reached 409,642, up 4% year on year, while Blast registrations alone reached 69,879, up 24% year on year.
Women’s and girls’ registered participation in cricket clubs reached 50,377 in 2022–23, up 26% year on year. The same census reported a 60% participation spike among girls aged 5–12 from South Asian backgrounds. The group-specific increase is not a percentage-point change and should not be combined with the overall 11% increase for children aged 5–12.
| Cricket Australia measure, 2022–23 | Figure | Year-on-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Children aged 5–12 | 129,000 | 11% increase |
| Total registered participants | 627,693 | 5% increase |
| Club and Blast registrations | 409,642 | 4% increase |
| Blast registrations | 69,879 | 24% increase |
| Women’s and girls’ club participation | 50,377 | 26% increase |
The census and the Participation Growth targets answer different questions. The census describes registered participation in 2022–23; the targets describe where Cricket Australia intended participation to reach by 2027. For youth cricket, that distinction matters because a target can indicate direction and ambition without being evidence that the target has already been met.
Under-19 World Cup history and records
The ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup began in 1988 as the Youth Cricket World Cup and had been running for more than 30 years by 2019. The 1998 edition expanded to 16 teams. After Japan and Nigeria were added for South Africa 2020, the ICC had 31 national representatives in the competition. Pakistan had 56 wins from 81 matches through 2022.
Historical scorecards show the extremes of youth international cricket. Australia Under-19 scored 480 for 6 against Kenya in 2002 at a run rate of 9.6 per over. Craig Simmons made 155, Shaun Marsh scored 125 from 81 balls and George Bailey made 56 from 26. Kenya were bowled out for 50.
Other high totals included New Zealand Under-19’s 436 for 4 against Kenya in 2018, India Under-19’s 425 for 3 against Scotland in 2004 and Sri Lanka Under-19’s 419 for 4 against Kenya in 2018. At the other end, Scotland’s 22 against Australia in 2004 remains the tournament low in the cited ICC record. Australia needed 23 runs and won in 3.5 overs with 277 balls remaining. Canada, Japan and Bangladesh were tied on 41 for the second-lowest totals.
The 2026 tournament featured 41 matches across Zimbabwe and Namibia. India won the final by 100 runs after posting 411 for 9. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scored 175 from 80 balls, including 15 fours and 15 sixes. He finished the tournament with 439 runs, a 169.49 strike rate and a tournament-record 30 sixes. Ben Mayes finished with 444 runs and scored 191 against Scotland.
Bowling and partnership records added further perspective. Manny Lumsden finished as leading wicket-taker with 16 wickets. Thomas Rew and Hamza Zahoor were joint-top for dismissals with 14 each. Sri Lanka’s Dimantha Mahavithana and Viran Chamuditha added 328 for the opening wicket against Japan, the highest partnership for any wicket in both Under-19 World Cups and Youth ODIs. Chamuditha scored 192, while Japan’s Hugo Tani-Kelly made an unbeaten 101, Japan’s first individual three-figure score at an Under-19 World Cup.
Will Malajczuk reached an Under-19 World Cup hundred in 51 balls, and Shaquan Belle recorded 6 for 40 against South Africa. In the placement matches, Tanzania, Scotland, Japan and the USA contested the 13th–16th place play-offs; Japan finished 14th overall after beating Tanzania.