Crusaders Cricket Australia is a non-for-profit organisation established in 1977 by Ben Barnett (former Australian Cricketer), Swan Richards, David Richards and the late Ray Steele to provide the opportunity of playing the game of cricket. Crusaders is made up of multiple programs including the Outright Program which provides opportunity for boys aged 12-18 to play games in summer against schools, association teams, academies and cricket clubs. The Flashbacks program consists of cricketers aged 30+ who continue to take part in the game of cricket, playing matches across Melbourne. Crusaders also provides the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to willing cricketers to experience the game in other countries through mid-year cricket tours to places such as Europe, UK, Asia, Sri Lanka and anywhere else on the planet. In 2017, The Crusaders partnered with Cricket Victoria to provide opportunity for players that had previously played within the pathway system to develop their game further with long-format matches against Cricket Victoria’s Academy and a Sub-District Representative Squad. Crusaders has been developing cricketers for almost four decades, producing first-class, test cricketers and more importantly, great people. The emblem of the Crusaders is of great significance, the background of navy blue portrays the past, sky blue represents the present and the gold represents the future. The stars represent each state and territory of Australia, the mythical bird (martlett) is believed to have been in existence all the way back to the 10th century. The oxford dictionary quotes the word "Crusade" as "a cause" and characterises the reason for the name, Crusaders.