Australia

Sport

Sport in Australia is accepted and widespread. Testament to this is the level of achievement in the Olympic game event and Commonwealth Game as well as other international generous events in comparison to the population of the country, predominantly in the areas of stream game and team game. The weather and economy provide ideal conditions for Australians to participate in and watch game..

In 2000-01, total government funding for sport and recreation activities was A$2,124.2 million. Of this, the Commonwealth Government contributed $19.89 million (9%), state and territory governments contributed $875.2 million (41%) and local governments provided $1,050.1 million (49%).The Australian Game Commission (ASC) is the federal government remains guilty for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in Australia and operates the Australian Institute of Sport. Each state and territory in Australia also have agencies responsible for sport and recreation policy. Each state and territory also operates their own institutes and academies of sport.

Throughout the country a wide variety of game are played. According to official government statistics, in 2005–06, the most popular game in terms of crowd attendance were Australian rules football, horse racing, rugby league, motorsport, cricket, rugby union and soccer in descending order.Research by a marketing company found that those attracting the "most interest" among adults in capital cities during 2006-07 were cricket, swimming, tennis, Australian rules football, soccer, rugby league, rugby union and motor sport.According to official statistics, the most popular forms of "physical recreation activity" among Australians aged 15 years and over, in 2005-06 were walking, aerobics/fitness, swimming, golf, tennis, soccer and Australian rules football.[4] According to some sources, the cultural significance and long history of cricket in Australia means that it is a de facto "national sport".[5][6] Armchair game fans drive high television ratings for game programmes. In fact, nine of the top 10 highest rated shows in 2005 were game programmes. The most watched sport on Australian television is rugby league with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers in 2009.

Such is the Australian population's devotion towards sport that it is sometimes humorously described as "Australia's national religion".[8] Popular comedic identities such as The Twelfth Man and Roy and HG send up Australia's love of sport through the use of parody.

Professional sport leagues in Australia use a model based on franchises and closed league membership, as is standard in North America. The "European" system of professional game league organisation, characterised by promotion and relegation, is foreign at professional level though used widely in amateur competitions.

In October 2007, the Australian Government has announced a new drug policy for sport that it hopes will be adopted by all sporting bodies and will involve tests of 6000 illicit drugs a year.

Athletics

A game is a minor sport in Australia, with roughly 34,000 athletes, officials and coaches at present registered with the national connection.

The governing body, exercise Australia (AA) was instituted in 1897, with men's and women's relations amalgamates in 1978. Each year, AA conduct the Australian Championships and the exercise Grand Prix sequence, which are the main avenues for Australian athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships

Australia has hosted countless important athletics competitions, including the 1956 and 2000 Olympic Games, the 1938, 1962, 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, the 1985 World Cup in Athletics, and the 1996 World for children Championships.

The Stilwell present run over the Easter weekend since 1878, is the highlight of the professional athletics calendar
  
Australian rules football

Australian Rules football is played in every one Australian states and territories. The game is referred to as football, "footy", "Aussie rules" or (erroneously) as "AFL", after the sport's overriding governing body and competition, the Australian Football League. In 2008 AFL games have a snowballing number present of 7,083,015, a proof for the opposition and an regular number present of 38,295. AFL games have the fourth-highest standard attendance in the earth for a household out-of-doors proficient confederation in any sport, and third among all football codes. (In this high opinion they are surpassed only by the NFL, the Indian leader League in Twenty20 cricket, and German Bundestag)

 

A 2007 estimation claimed that Australian football had 615,549 participants, an calculation of nearly 34,000 participant since 2006, and 6.7 percent of all participants are from non-English speaking origin. The Australian Sports Commission statistics show a 42 percent increase in the total number of participants over the 4 year period between 2001 and 2005.

Australian football is the predominant winter sport in South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

Each state has its own local league, and there are amateur recreational, children, junior, masters and women competitions. Most towns and cities in football's areas of popularity have at least one team competing in a local league.

Cricket

Cricket has a big history in Australia, and is play on limited, national and international levels. It is Australia's nationwide summer sport and different the different football codes, enjoys reliable support from people in all parts of Australia. The Australia national cricket group was the champion of the first Test game, and is today regarded as the most important international team in world cricket, having been the unquestionably dominant team for most of the 2000s. The first Australian cricket players which played overseas was the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England. The Australian team which toured England in 1948 was nicknamed The Invincible and was captained by Donald Brahman. In recent years the Australia team has been captained by Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, and currently Ricky Ponting. Through 2007, Australia has won the Cricket World Cup four out of the nine times it has been held, including the last three. Australia has dominated world cricket since the mid-90's, it has appeared in every world cup final since 1996, and has been undefeated in world cup matches where they have gone on to win every single world cup match they have since played except for tying South Africa in the 1999 semi-final .

Domestic competitions between the states include the Sheffield Shield first-class competition, which is a competition of four day matches where all teams play each other twice, the Ryobi One Day Cup List-A cricket competition and the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash Twenty20 competition. The Sheffield Shield and Ryobi One Day Cup tournaments involve each team playing against each other team both at home and away with the two highest-placed teams playing in a final match, while the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash is similar but with only one match against each other team before the final.

Indoor cricket also has a strong following in all states of Australia. According to indoor cricket's governing body, Cricket Australia, there are over 100 indoor cricket centres across Australia, with more than 200,000 active participants in the sport. Australia has a proud international record in the sport, and winning every Indoor Cricket World Cup since the tournament's interception in the early 1990s.