2.3 million attend cricket in 2015

23 Nov 2015 | Cricket
Cricket has recorded its highest overall attendance figures for international and domestic matches since the ECB was founded 18 years ago.
An Ashes summer for men and women combined with three successful domestic competitions drew more than 2.3 million fans to matches in England & Wales.

In county cricket more than 1.5 million people attended LV= County Championship, Royal London One-Day Cup and NatWest T20 Blast matches combined and all three competitions recorded increased total attendances year-on-year.

And international attendances were up by 75,000 on 2014 - despite all five Investec Ashes Test matches finishing inside four days - supported by thrilling Test and One-Day series against New Zealand and sell-out Women's internationals.

Key trends from 2015 included:
•More than 560,000 fans watched England in Investec Test matches; 193,000 in Royal London ODIs and 31,000 in NatWest International T20s, with 5 sell-out days in Cardiff
•513,000 people watched LV= County Championship matches - up from 495,000 last year.
•More than 200,000 people attended the 72 Royal London One-Day Cup matches - an increase of around 500 per match on the previous year.
•The average NatWest T20 Blast attendance per match rose by 800 and eleven out of 18 counties saw their NatWest T20 Blast attendances increase year-on-year.

ECB Chief Executive Officer Tom Harrison said: Across the summer attendances grew for each of the county competitions as well as the international games.

We saw an inspiring series with New Zealand and an Investec Ashes victory for England's men, an ever-higher profile and record crowds for the Women's Ashes series, ECB records for all three formats of the domestic game and, at grassroots level, significant increases in entries for our junior cricket competitions alongside our highest levels of volunteering for the NatWest CricketForce.

These figures reflect a big effort by the counties, our international venues and partners to enhance the match-day experience, improve facilities and make our cricket grounds as fan-friendly and accessible as possible.

They are all good signs and there are big opportunities ahead. We know that there's more that can be done to draw people to watch and play cricket and further improve standards across the game.

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Domestic and International cricket attendances since 1997

Year 1997
International attendances 498,916
Domestic attendances 1,207,103
Total 1,706,019

1998
453,365
1,130,074
1,583,439

1999
788,623
1,074,488
1,863,111

2000
525,108
1,025,758
1,550,866

2001
713,455
1,012,095
1,725,550

2002
556,304
1,030,169
1,586,473

2003
630,213
1,266,962
1,897,175

2004
710,096
1,148,183
1,858,279

2005
693,321
1,363,685
2,057,006

2006
787,402
1,363,093
2,150,495

2007
809,430
1,222,897
2,032,327

2008
737,306
1,369,787
2,107,093

2009
716,187
1,121,880
1,838,067

2010
577,587
1,419,065
1,996,652

2011
849,302
1,452,109
2,301,411

2012
697,124
994,868
1,691,992

2013
790,475
1,398,409
2,188,884

2014
709,643
1,382,942
2,092,585

Year 2015
International attendance 785,030
Domestic 1,543,734
Total 2,328,764