It is important culturally and regarded as a national sport (along with Australian rules football),[2] and is widely played across the country, especially from the months of September to April.

[7] The 1876–77 season was notable for a match between a combined XI from New South Wales and Victoria and the touring Englishmen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground played on 15–19 March.

Bradman scored heavily, 974 runs at an average of 139.14 including a then world record 334 at Leeds, two other double centuries and another single.

Following discussions with other observers such as Percy Fender and George Duckworth, he developed a tactic to limit the prodigious run scoring of Bradman and the others.

Combined with bowlers of the speed and accuracy of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, the tactic required batsmen to risk injury in order to protect their wicket.

In the third Test in Adelaide, Larwood struck Australian captain Bill Woodfull above the heart and fractured wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield's skull.

A commitment by Benaud and his West Indian counterpart Frank Worrell to entertaining cricket revived lagging interest in the sport.

[17] The gripping series, including the first tied Test, saw Australia win 2–1 and become the inaugural holders of the newly commissioned Frank Worrell Trophy.

The West Indian team was held in such affection that a ticker-tape parade in their honour prior to their departure from Australia attracted a crowd of 300,000 Melburnians to wish them farewell.

[5] The controversy reached a high point when Ian Meckiff was recalled to the Australian team for the first Test of the 1963–64 series against South Africa.

Called on to bowl his first over, he was no-balled 4 times by umpire Colin Egar for throwing before being removed from the attack by his skipper, Benaud.

As a consequence, Meckiff retired from all levels of cricket after the match and Egar received death threats from persons aggrieved at his call.

[20] During the following home series against England, Lawry was sacked as captain and replaced by the South Australian batsman, Ian Chappell.

[20] Greg Chappell, Ian's younger brother, succeeded him as captain in 1975–76 and led the Australian team in the Centenary Test in Melbourne in March 1977.

Former Australian captain, Bob Simpson was recalled from retirement to lead an inexperienced team in a home series against India in 1977–78, won 3–2 and then a tour to the West Indies, marred by an ugly riot.

Their retirement at the end of the 1983–84 season was quickly followed by a series of tours to South Africa by a rebel Australian team in breach of the sporting sanctions imposed on the apartheid regime.

The combined effect was to leave Australian cricket at its nadir under reluctant captain, Allan Border, losing Test series at home (2–1) and away (1–0) to New Zealand in 1985–86.

[25] By the 1989 Ashes tour, the development of players such as Steve Waugh and David Boon and the discovery of Mark Taylor and Ian Healy had reaped rewards.

[27] The most successful leg-spinbowler in the history of the game, Shane Warne, made his debut in 1991–92 in the third Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

[28] When the fast medium bowler, Glenn McGrath was first selected in the Australian team for the Perth test against New Zealand in 1993–94, the core of a highly successful bowling attack was formed.

In 1994–95, under new captain Taylor, the Australians defeated the then dominant West Indies in the Caribbean to recover the Frank Worrell Trophy for the first time since 1978 and staked a claim to be considered the best team in the world.

Waugh made a slightly rocky start to his term as captain, drawing 2–2 with the West Indies in the Caribbean and losing to Sri Lanka 1–0 away.

[36] Following the series, the successful bowling combination of McGrath and Warne retired from Test cricket, with a record that was hard to match.

Fourteen teams played 49 matches in 14 venues, with Australia staging 26 games at grounds in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Australia defeated New Zealand by 7 wickets to win their fifth ICC Cricket World Cup in front of a record crowd of 93,013.

Its initiatives include infrastructure development, coaching, and player welfare programs designed to maintain and enhance Australia's competitive performance internationally.

Australia compete with England for the Women's Ashes, a cricket bat symbolically burned prior to the 1998 test series.

[72] In addition, Steve Waugh has been nominated as an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, as was Don Bradman prior to his death in 2001.

[77] In 2013, Ten paid $100 million for BBL rights over five years, marking the channel's first foray into elite cricket coverage.

In 2018 it was announced that the Seven Network and Foxtel had paid a combined $1.2 billion over 6 years for broadcast rights of all cricket competitions in Australia.