By Neena Bhandari, IANS,
Sydney : Australians love cricket more than any other game, at least when it comes to watching sport on TV, according to new research figures out Wednesday.
As many as 47 percent Australians watch cricket on TV as against 41 percent who watch Australian Football League (AFL); 33 percent watch tennis, 25 percent watch National Rugby League, 18 percent watch golf, and 10 percent watch Rugby Union.
The research figures are from a sample of about 50,000 Australians interviewed by Roy Morgan, an Australian market research company headquartered in Melbourne.
Cricket Australia (CA) CEO James Sutherland said it was encouraging to see the new Roy Morgan research findings.
The data coincides with CA’s own research showing that the Australian cricket team is very popular. That research rated the team and all of its individual players very highly and noted that 83 percent of respondents regarded them as good role models for children.
“That (CA) research, part of our regular measurement of cricket as a brand, combined with our data on public interest in cricket and also combined with new cricket census figures showing record numbers playing formal, organised cricket, tells us that cricket is in good shape,” Sutherland said.
“But drilling into the data shows that cricket, and indeed all sports, need to do more work to win female support,” he added.
The figures showed only 36 percent of women watched cricket on TV, 34 percent watched AFL, 33 percent watched tennis and 12 percent watched golf.
Australian cricket, at national and state cricket association levels, has identified better engagement of females of women and girls in all aspects of cricket as a strategic priority.
This includes making the game more accessible for female players, developing Twenty20 cricket with an eye to catching the attention of new female fans, reviewing event presentation at venues, understanding and addressing the specific consumer needs of females, and lobbying media to provide greater coverage to women’s cricket.
Australia also bid aggressively to win the right to defend its title as International Cricket Council Women’s World Cup holder on Australian soil next year.
The ICC Women’s World Cup will be staged in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, with eight teams contesting the title in a series of one-day internationals to be played in March 2009.