Cricket has already been struggling to maintain sponsorship levels and questions over the claim of "1.65 million Australians" could further diminish Cricket Australia's credibility. Healthy grassroots participation is also crucial for the future success of the sport at elite levels. Cricket Australia's acting executive general manager, community cricket, Kieran McMillan, told The Sun-Herald that the poor quality of CA’s data made calculations of unique cricketers "a guessing game". "That’s a danger in all the data," Mr McMillan said. "Because we’re not collecting individual records and we’re making a lot of assumptions based on team numbers, we’re not really talking about unique players.''

He said that reporting the overall "participation" of "1.65 million Australians" was "still important… as that gives you a sense of the amount of cricket being played, and that is the kind of information that local councils are really interested in because it goes to facilities utilisation". He said Cricket Australia was working towards getting a closer idea of the number of unique cricketers next year, once all players registered online. "This will provide us with a much-improved picture of the number of unique participants in the club sector … There will still be two numbers reported going forward, because that informs strategies." While Cricket Australia has been reporting annually increasing participation, club cricket administrators say they have been losing numbers at an alarming rate, particularly among males aged 16 and over. The number of clubs has fallen from 4200 to 3500 in the past decade, during which period the peak body has claimed a rise in "participants" from 600,000 to 1.65 million. Cricket Australia has pumped up its numbers with estimations of school children in physical education classes playing cricket, sources say. According to a senior Cricket Australia official, "any kid who we can get a bat into their hands, we call them a cricketer".

Explainer: How we exposed Cricket Australia's double counting For registered cricketers, Mr McMillan said Cricket Australia used a "multiplier" of 15 players a team. This would have produced 217,500 outdoor players, but the organisation instead reported more than double that. It also reported nearly 175,000 indoor cricketers based on a multiple of 11 per team. Loading In the past year, Cricket Australia moved its counting in-house, taking over from the Victorian research firm Street Ryan, which devised the Australian Cricket Census in 2002. Mr McMillan said Street Ryan still "provide a layer of independence to [the census]" and "help us do it better each year". However, Wayne Street, the principal of Street Ryan, said his firm had "not really looked into it yet", adding it was "an in-house document and we would later do some analytical work". Asked if any Cricket Australia employees are paid incentives when higher participation numbers are produced, Mr McMillan said: "Like any business, employees are measured for performance and participation is a key measure of cricket health for Cricket Australia…. The primary KPIs in this space are registered players and the growth in girls’ teams."

Sponsor Carlton and United Breweries ended its 20-year sponsorship of the Australian men’s cricket team in 2017, and in the same year the Commonwealth Bank reduced its commitment, moving from a four-year, $50 million sponsorship to a three-year, $15 million sponsorship focusing specifically on women’s, Indigenous and all-abilities cricket, where participation has been rising. Brands such as Sanitarium, Magellan and LG ended their partnerships after last year’s ball-tampering affair. While Cricket Australia’s income is not tied directly to its claims on participation numbers, the ever-growing census figure has long invited scepticism from stakeholders. A source close to the last broadcast negotiations said, "they used that number in negotiations but we never took it seriously". Another stakeholder who has had intimate dealings with Cricket Australia said: "In our negotiations, CA used these figures. They knew the number was bullshit, we knew it was bullshit, everyone knows it’s bullshit. But they can’t say the real number because all the other sports do the same, and it’s produced for their commercial and government relationships which might be hurt if those partners knew the real number. Nobody inside cricket wants to talk it down, because the game might then lose funding.’ However, Sun-Herald inquiries have shown that all sports do not do the same. Other sports were transparent in reporting actual participants rather than a "participation rate". As the table shows, if the number of unique registered club players were compared, cricket would not be Australia’s number-one sport, as it claims, but number seven.

Mr McMillan said Cricket Australia's surveying methods were "consistent with the industry standard as endorsed by Sport Australia". Cricket receives diverse government funding at federal, state and local levels. Federally, Sport Australia gives cricket "the benefits of over $36 million in funding through Sport Australia’s Move It AUS – Community Sport Infrastructure grant program and $873,508 through our Sporting Schools program", according to a spokeswoman. Sport Australia’s funding does factor in participation numbers, but it relies on its own research, not Cricket Australia’s. Cricket does not rate in Australia's top five sports for either adults or children, according to an Ausplay survey. When the census result was announced, Cricket NSW acknowledged the problem in club cricket. "Overall, we understand this year has been tough for club cricket," said Ivan Spyrdz, Cricket NSW’s general manager of community cricket.

"We’ve particularly seen drops in player numbers in drought affected areas, and Cricket NSW is working on ways of helping those most impacted by the drought," Mr Spyrdz said. "Cricket has been through a tough year or so but there is a lot of excitement about how the game has rebounded, and the season ahead looks very promising for community cricket." Mr McMillan said: "I want to make it very clear that registered participation and reversing the current trend is the number-one focus for community cricket. There is no doubt societal change is impacting the Australian tradition of weekend adult sport and we are investing in supporting clubs and associations to help adapt and grow the game." Loading Cricket Victoria chief Andrew Ingleton said: "We are under no illusions about the ongoing work required to support our clubs and associations in both attracting new players and retaining existing players." He said the organisation, in partnership with local and state government, was "investing millions of dollars in infrastructure projects to enhance cricket grounds and deliver female-friendly facilities."