The Ashes 2025: Why are cricket scoreboards backwards in Australia?

Why are cricket scorecards backwards in Australia?

On Australian television, cricket scores are presented in the opposite way to what they are in England and most other countries.

For example, a score of 200-4 would actually be shown as 4-200, with the wickets taken displayed first instead of the runs.

The reason is due to Australian tradition that dates back to the 19th century and a scoreboard designed by former Australian cricketer Ned Gregory.

Gregory became the curator of the Sydney Cricket Ground but upon taking the role, decided he did not like the original English scoreboard design and felt it did not give spectators inside the ground enough information.

Gregory therefore redesigned a huge scoreboard to include a wide range of information on the match and required at least two operators to manage it.

A major design change to that saw the use of wickets before runs on the total match score, going the opposite way to how England and most other countries display their scores.

Gregory’s scoreboard innovations proved hugely successful and following its implementation, other grounds around Australia soon followed.

The use of wickets before runs became tradition in Australia in stadiums and across broadcasting, with Australia keeping the format ever since.