World Series Cricket
Encyclopedia
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer
Kerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...

 for his Australian television network, Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket. World Series Cricket drastically changed the nature of cricket, and its influence continues to be felt today.

The series originated due to two main factors—the widespread view that players were not paid sufficient amounts to make a living from cricket, and that Packer wished to secure the exclusive broadcasting rights to Australian cricket, then held by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

 (ABC).

After the Australian Cricket Board
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...

 (ACB) refused to accept Channel Nine's bid to gain exclusive television rights to Australia's Test matches in 1976, Packer set up his own series by secretly signing agreements with leading Australian, English, Pakistani, South African and West Indian players, most notably England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...

 captain Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...

, West Indies captain Clive Lloyd
Clive Lloyd
Clive Hubert Lloyd CBE AO is a former West Indies cricketer. He captained the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 and oversaw their rise to become the dominant Test-playing nation, a position that was only relinquished in the latter half of the 1990s...

, Australian captain Greg Chappell
Greg Chappell
Gregory Stephen Chappell MBE is a former cricketer who captained Australia between 1975 and 1977 and then joined the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation, before returning to the Australian captaincy in 1979, a position he held until his retirement 1983...

 and former Australian Captain Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...

. Packer was aided by businessmen John Cornell
John Cornell
John Cornell is a film producer, actor and businessman.Born in Ballygarvan,Cork Cornell once managed Paul Hogan and often appeared alongside Hogan in his popular television show The Paul Hogan Show as Strop, a dim-witted dinkum Aussie surf lifesaver...

 and Austin Robertson
Austin Robertson, Jr.
Austin Christian Robertson was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the VFL and Subiaco in the WANFL...

, both of whom were involved with the initial setup and administration of the series.

Kerry Packer and the Australian television industry

In the mid-1970s, the Australian television industry was at the crossroads. Since its inception in 1956, commercial television in Australia had developed a reliance on imported programs, particularly from the United States, buying which was cheaper than commissioning Australian productions. Agitation for more Australian-made programming gained impetus from the "TV: Make it Australian" campaign in 1970. This led to a government-imposed quota system in 1973. The advent of colour transmissions in 1975 markedly improved sport as a television spectacle and, importantly Australian sport counted as local content. However, sports administrators perceived live telecasts to have an adverse effect on attendances. The correlation between sports, corporate sponsorship and television exposure was not evident to Australian sports administrators at the time.

After the death of his father Sir Frank
Frank Packer
Sir Douglas Frank Hewson Packer, KBE , was an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network.-Biography:...

 in 1974, Kerry Packer assumed control of Channel Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

, one of the many media interests owned by the family's company Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH). With Nine's ratings languishing, Packer sought to turn the network around via an aggressive strategy that included more sports programming. Firstly, he secured the rights to the Australian Open golf tournament
Australian Open (golf)
The Australian Open is one of the principal annual golf tournaments on the PGA Tour of Australasia, and also the OneAsia Tour since its formation in 2009. The event was first played in 1904 and takes place toward the end of each year...

. He spent millions of dollars revamping The Australian Golf Club
The Australian Golf Club
The Australian Golf Club is a golf club located in Rosebery, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Although it survived numerous course location changes, it is arguably the oldest golf club in Australia. To date the course has held 17 Australian Opens, the most recent being from 13–16 December 2007,...

 in Sydney as a permanent home for the tournament. Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...

 was hired to redesign the course and to appear in the tournament. Packer was a fan of cricket, which was undergoing a resurgence in popularity during the mid-1970s. In 1976, Packer sought the rights to televise Australia's home Test matches, the contract for which was about to expire. He approached the ACB
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...

 with an offer of A$1.5 million for three years (eight times the previous contract), yet he was rebuffed. The ACB felt loyal to the ABC, which had broadcast the game for twenty years when the commercial networks showed little interest in the game. Packer believed that there was an "old-boy network" element to the decision, and he was furious at the dismissive way that his bid was handled. The government-funded ABC could not hope to match a commercial network's bid, but they were awarded another three-year contract worth only $210,000, commencing with the 1976-77 season.

Determined to get some cricket on Channel Nine, Packer put an offer to the Test and County Cricket Board
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...

 (TCCB) to telecast the Australian tour of England scheduled for 1977
Australian cricket team in England in 1977
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1977 season to play a five Test matches for the 1977 Ashes series against England. The Australians also played 3 one day internationals and 19 other tour matches....

. His interest was further stimulated by a proposal to play some televised exhibition matches, an idea presented to him by the West Australian businessmen John Cornell and Austin Robertson. Robertson managed several high profile Australian cricketers such as Dennis Lillee.

Packer took this idea, then fleshed it out into a full series between the best Australian players and a team from the rest of the world. His mistrust of cricket's administrators deepened when the ACB recommended the TCCB accept an offer for their broadcasts rights from the ABC, even though the ABC was offering about thirty per cent less than Packer. For the first time, the game's officialdom had a demonstration of Packer's wherewithal: he immediately doubled his original offer and won the contract. But he never forgot the machinations involved in winning the bid.

Secret signings

Packer's planning of the proposed "exhibition" series was audacious. In early 1977, he began contracting a list of Australian players provided by recently-retired Australian Test captain Ian Chappell. A bigger coup was achieved when Packer convinced the England captain Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...

 to not only sign on, but to act as an agent in signing many players around the world. By the time the season climaxed with the
Centenary Test
Centenary Test
Centenary Test refers to two matches of Test cricket played between the English cricket team and the Australian cricket team, the first in 1977 and the second in 1980. These matches were played to mark the 100th anniversaries of the first Test cricket matches played in Australia and in England ...

 match between Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...

 and England at Melbourne
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...

 in March 1977, about two dozen players had committed to Packer's enterprise, which as yet had no grounds to play on, no administration and was secret to all in the cricket world. It was a measure of the players' dissatisfaction with official cricket that they were prepared to sign up for what was still a vague concept and still keep everything covert.

By the time the Australian team arrived to tour England in May 1977, thirteen of the seventeen members of the squad had committed to Packer. News of the WSC plans were inadvertently leaked to Australian journalists, who broke the story on 9 May. Immediately, all hell broke loose in the hitherto conservative world of cricket. Not unexpectedly, the English were critical of what they quickly dubbed the "Packer Circus" and reserved particular vitriol for the English captain Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...

, for his central role in organising the break-away. Greig retained his position in the team, but was stripped of the captaincy and ostracised by everyone in the cricket establishment, most of whom had been singing his praises just weeks before.

It seemed certain that all Packer players would be banned from Test and first class cricket. The Australian players were a divided group and the management made their displeasure clear to the Packer signees. Dispirited by this turn of events and hampered by poor form and indifferent weather, Australia crashed to a 3-0 defeat, surrendering the Ashes won two years before.

Court case

A largely unknown Kerry Packer arrived in London in late May 1977. He appeared on David Frost
David Frost (broadcaster)
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon...

's The Frost Programme to debate his concept with commentators Jim Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...

 and Robin Marlar
Robin Marlar
Robin Geoffrey Marlar is an English cricketer and cricket journalist. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge....

. Marlar's aggressive, indignant interrogation of Packer came unstuck when Packer proved to be articulate, witty and confident that his vision was the way of the future. The show significantly raised Packer's profile and converted some to his way of thinking. The main goal of his trip was to meet the game's authorities and reach some type of compromise. He made a canny move by securing Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....

 as a consultant. Benaud's standing in the game and his journalistic background helped steer Packer through the politics of the game.

Cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Conference (ICC
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...

), now entered a controversy initially perceived as an Australian domestic problem. They met with Packer, Benaud and two assistants at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...

 on 23 June to discuss the WSC plans. After ninety minutes of compromise from both sides had almost created common ground, Packer demanded that the ICC award him the exclusive Australian television rights after the 1978-79 season ended. It wasn't in the power of the ICC to do so and Packer stormed from the meeting to deliver the following unadulterated declaration of war:
Had I got those TV rights I was prepared to withdraw from the scene and leave the running of cricket to the board. I will take no steps now to help anyone. It's every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.

This outburst undid any goodwill that Packer had created during his earlier television appearance, and alarmed his contracted players, who viewed his scheme as being as much philanthropic as commercial. The ICC decided to treat Packer's scheme with contempt when a month later they decided Packer's matches would not be given first-class status and the players involved would be banned from Test match and first class cricket.

A number of the signed players now considered withdrawing. Jeff Thomson
Jeff Thomson
Jeffrey Robert Thomson is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he was one of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket and was the opening partner of fellow fast bowler Dennis Lillee; their combination was one of the most fearsome in Test cricket history...

 and Alvin Kallicharan had their contracts torn up when it was discovered that they had binding agreements with a radio station requiring them to play for Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...

. Packer moved quickly to shore up support, meeting with the players and taking legal action to prevent third parties from inducing players to break their contracts. To clarify the legal implications (including the proposed bans), Packer backed a challenge to the TCCB in the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

 by three of his players: Tony Greig, Mike Procter
Mike Procter
Michael John Procter is a former South African cricketer. A fast bowler and hard hitting batsman, his chances for a long and productive test career were wrecked by South Africa's banishment from world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s...

 and John Snow
John Snow (cricketer)
John Augustine Snow played cricket for Sussex and England in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite being the son of a country vicar and publishing two volumes of poetry Snow was England's most formidable fast bowler between Fred Trueman and Bob Willis and played Test Matches with both of them at either end...

.

The case began on 26 September 1977 and lasted seven weeks. The cricket authorities counsel said that if the top players deserted traditional cricket then gate receipts would decline. Mr. Packer's lawyers stated that the ICC had tried to force the Packer players to break their contracts and to prevent others from joining them. Justice Sir Christopher Slade considered the following nine points needed to be considered:
  1. Are the contracts between WSC and its players void?
  2. Has WSC established that, as at August 3, and subject to any statutory immunity conferred by the 1974 Act, it was a good cause of action in tort against the ICC based on inducement of breach of contract?
  3. Has WSC established that as at August 3 and subject as aforesaid, it had a good cause of action in tort against the TCCB based on the same grounds?
  4. Subject to the provisions of the 1974 Act, are the new ICC rules void as being in restraint of trade?
  5. Subject to aforesaid, are the proposed new TCCB rules void as being in restraint of trade?
  6. Is the ICC an employers' association within the 1974 Act?
  7. Is the TCCB an employers' association?
  8. If either the ICC or TCCB or both be employers' associations, does this itself bar any cause of action that would otherwise exist?
  9. In the light of the answers, what relief (if any) should be given to (a) the individual plaintiffs and (b) WSC?


Justice Slade in his judgment said professional cricketers need to make a living and the ICC should not stand in the way just because their own interests may be damaged. He said the ICC may have stretched the concept of loyalty too far. Players could not be criticized for entering the contracts in secrecy as the main authorities would deny the players the opportunity to enjoy the advantages offered by WSC.

The decision was a blow to the cricket authorities as they had to pay court costs. English County cricket teams were pleased as their players who had signed to play for Packer were still eligible to play for them.

"Supertests", the West Indies and drop-in pitches

Official cricket won a series of minor victories - Packer was unable to use the terms "Test match" or call their team of Australians "Australia", or use the official rules of cricket, which are the copyright of the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

.

So the five-day matches became "Supertests", played by the "WSC Australian XI" and Richie Benaud set to work writing rules and playing conditions for the series. Most importantly, WSC was shut out of traditional cricket venues, so Packer leased two Australian football stadiums, VFL Park
Waverley Park
Waverley Park was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian based Victorian Football League/Australian Football League clubs. However, during the 1990s it became the home ground of...

 in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and Football Park in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, Perth's Gloucester Park
Gloucester Park
Gloucester Park is a harness racing course in Perth, Western Australia. In the suburb of East Perth, the oval course is adjacent to the WACA Ground...

 (a trotting track), and the Sydney Showground
Sydney Showground (Moore Park)
The former Sydney Showground at Moore Park was the site of the Sydney Royal Easter Show in New South Wales, Australia from 1882 until 1997, when the Show was moved to the new Sydney Showground at Homebush Bay, which was built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics...

.
The obvious problem was preparing grass pitches of suitable standard at these venues, where none had existed previously. By common consensus, it was considered impossible to create the pitches in such a short time. However, Packer hired the brilliant curator John Maley away from the Gabba
Brisbane Cricket Ground
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located....

 ground in Brisbane, and he pioneered the concept of "drop-in" pitches. These pitches were grown in hothouses outside the venue, then dropped into the playing surface with cranes. This revolutionary technique was the unsung highlight of the first season of WSC - without them, WSC would have been a folly.

Another unexpected element of the series was the emergence of a West Indian side. The concept was originally envisaged as Australia versus the rest of the world. When the West Indians were offered contracts that would pay them more than they could earn in an entire career, they all signed with alacrity. However, WSC erred by using the West Indian players in the World team as well, which contributed to the feeling that the matches were exhibitional in nature, i.e. they were not (in Australian parlance) "fair dinkum" .

The first WSC game, a Supertest" between the Australians and the West Indians began at VFL Park on December 2, 1977. The standard of the cricket was excellent, but the crowds were poor, which was emphasised by the stadium's capacity of 79,000. The official Test match played in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 at the same time, featuring the weakened Australian team and India, attracted far more spectators.

First season: 1977-78

Employing personality-based marketing, WSC placed great emphasis on the "gladiatorial" aspect of fast bowling and heavily promoted players such as Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...

, Imran Khan
Imran Khan
Imran Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former Pakistani cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics...

, Michael Holding
Michael Holding
Michael Anthony Holding is a former West Indian cricketer. One of the fastest bowlers ever to play Test cricket, he was nicknamed 'Whispering Death' by umpires due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease...

 and Andy Roberts. Few spin bowlers were signed by WSC. Packer himself was doubtful of the effectiveness of slow bowling. To counteract the continual rotation of pace bowlers on pitches of unproven quality, WSC batsmen felt the need to increase their bodily protection. In the Sydney Supertest on 16 December, Australian David Hookes
David Hookes
David William Hookes was an Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in the middle order...

 was hit a sickening blow from a bouncer bowled by West Indian Andy Roberts. Paradoxically, the effect of Hookes' broken jaw, captured graphically by Nine's cameras, served to "legitimise" the WSC matches:
... he had his jaw shattered by a bouncer from Andy Roberts ... Until that moment, WSC had looked suspiciously like a thrown-together entertainment package; Hookes' injury impressed the contest's intensity on all observers.


This incident had another effect: the first helmets appeared on batsmens' heads. Initially, Englishman Dennis Amiss
Dennis Amiss
Dennis Leslie Amiss MBE was an English cricketer and cricket administrator.Amiss suffered a serious back injury whilst playing soccer in his teenage years, which entailed him starting each day of his sporting life undergoing stretching routines to loosen up.He played cricket for both Warwickshire...

 sported a motorcycle helmet when batting in WSC, and he was quickly followed by many other players. Protective cricket equipment developed rapidly, and by the end of WSC, virtually all batsmen in WSC and official Test matches were sporting some form of protective headwear.

WSC decided to place greater emphasis on one-day cricket
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...

 than had been previously seen in Australia. A one day series, the "International Cup" featuring the Australian, West Indian and World teams, was played alongside six Supertests in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The first day/night match, played at Melbourne's VFL Park, attracted some curiosity value, but generally the paying public were indifferent to the series. Many took a lead from the hostile press, and official cricket benefited from a dramatic Test series played between Australia and a touring Indian team. The ACB's masterstroke was the appointment of the 41 year-old Bobby Simpson
Bob Simpson (cricketer)
Robert Baddeley Simpson AO is a former cricketer who played for New South Wales, Western Australia and Australia, captaining the national team from 1963–64 until 1967–68, and again in 1977–78. He later had a highly successful term as the coach of the Australian team...

 as Australian captain, after a ten-year retirement from first-class cricket. He led a young, unknown team to a 3-2 series victory which was not decided until the last Test in Adelaide. Big crowds attended the Tests, and the media was very supportive of the ACB throughout the summer.

By contrast, Packer was seen disconsolately counting cars as they arrived in the car park at some of his matches. He held one glimmer of hope, however. The best attended matches had been the day-night fixtures, and this format would become the backbone of the programming for the second season. In hindsight, his organisation's ability to even stage the games at such short notice was a triumph and excellent fine-tuning for what was to come. So far, the ACB had enjoyed the backing of the press and the true aficionados of the game. But a series of misfortunes and poor decisions came to plague the ACB in their battle to stay ahead of Packer.

The official Australian team headed to the Caribbean under Bobby Simpson in March 1978. The West Indies cricket officials had no wish to buy into the ACB-Packer fight and decided to select all of their WSC players for the Tests.

The united front weakens

Between the two WSC seasons, the united front presented by the ICC countries began to erode. The highest ill-feeling toward Packer existed in England, but many officials of the county clubs were prepared to keep Packer players on their books.

The West Indies were the most financially vulnerable nation, and only voted for the original ICC in the interests of unity. The financial and political problems of the recent Australian tour led them to begin negotiations with Packer for a WSC series in the Caribbean during the spring of 1979. Initially, Pakistan took a hard line and refused to select their Packer players, but changed to a more pragmatic approach when WSC signed additional Pakistanis during the off season. Ostensibly, India were not involved as yet, but rumours abounded that their captain Bishan Bedi and star batsman Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...

 had signed WSC options.

New Zealand's chief administrator, Walter Hadlee
Walter Hadlee
Walter Arnold Hadlee, CBE was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. He played domestic first-class cricket for Canterbury and Otago. Three of his five sons, Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry played cricket for New Zealand...

, had advocated a compromise from the start. Now he had no objection to WSC making a brief tour of his country in November, nor was he going to stop the Kiwis' best player, his son Richard
Richard Hadlee
Sir Richard John Hadlee, MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer who played provincial cricket for Canterbury, Nottinghamshire and Tasmania. He is the son of Walter Hadlee, and the brother of Dayle and Barry Hadlee. His former wife Karen also played international cricket for New Zealand.Hadlee was...

, from appearing with WSC. The South Africans, banned from official cricket due to the apartheid policy of their government, were keen to see their individual cricketers compete with the world’s best. Some were prepared to acclaim South Africa as the best side of the world on the basis of the performances of some of their players in WSC.

Meanwhile, WSC continued to up the stakes for the embattled ACB, optioning a number of young Australians and signing more overseas players: they now had well over 50 cricketers under contract. After organising the tours of New Zealand and the West Indies, WSC began making noises about a tour to England and signing enough players for stand-alone England and Pakistan teams.
A second tier tour was created for the 1978-79 season, taking the game to provincial centres around Australia and giving back-up players an opportunity to play regularly. This tour covered a 20,000 kilometre route between Cairns in Queensland to Devonport in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

. WSC created the "Cavaliers" for this secondary tour, a similar concept to the Cavalier teams of the 1960s in England. The team captained by Eddie Barlow
Eddie Barlow
Edgar John Barlow was a South African cricketer . Barlow played first-class cricket for Transvaal and Eastern Province from 1959-60 to 1967-68 before moving to Western Province for the seasons from 1968-69 to 1980-81...

 was made of recently retired cricketers, such as Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is a former West Indian Cricket player of Indo-Guyanese descent. He is widely considered as one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured in several great West Indian teams, playing with, among others, Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, and Alvin...

, David Holford
David Holford
David Anthony Jerome Holford is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 24 Tests from 1966 to 1977. He is the cousin of Garry Sobers.-References:...

 and Ian Redpath
Ian Redpath
Ian Ritchie Redpath is a former Australian cricketer who played in 66 Tests and 5 ODIs from 1964 to 1976...

 and occasionally young Australians such as Trevor Chappell
Trevor Chappell
Trevor Martin Chappell is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket...

. It also starred a great innings at Maitland
Maitland
Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" , or it may be a locational reference to Mautalant, a place in Pontorson, France...

, by a then unheard of Kepler Wessels
Kepler Wessels
Kepler Christoffel Wessels is a former South African cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. He was the first man to have played One Day International cricket for two countries....

 of 92 not out for the Cavaliers. These matches brought cricket to venues that rarely saw big games.

Packer demonstrated his political clout by getting New South Wales premier Neville Wran to overturn the ban on WSC and allow matches to be played at the traditional home of the game, the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...

 (SCG). To boot, Wran had his government foot the bill to install lights good enough for Packer to use. WSC also gained access to Brisbane's Test ground, The Gabba
Brisbane Cricket Ground
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located....

, and were offered use of the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...

, which was rejected. Perth and Adelaide were dropped from the itinerary. A strategy of focusing on audiences in Melbourne and Sydney was now in place.

Second season: 1978-79

The war swung dramatically in Packer's favour on 28 November 1978 when the first day-night match on a traditional cricket ground was played at the SCG between the WSC Australian and West Indian teams. A near-capacity crowd of 44,377 turned out to watch the limited overs contest, serving a warning to the ACB. A few days later, the official Australian team was humbled in the first Test against England at Brisbane, a precursor to a 5-1 thrashing for a side now captained by the unprepared Graham Yallop
Graham Yallop
Graham Neil Yallop is a former cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. He captained Australia briefly during the tumultuous era of World Series Cricket in the late 1970s...

. Even Yallop felt himself unsuited to the position, and his team was unable to compete with an experienced, professional England side. Although the Englishmen merely defeated the opposition presented, they further damaged the ACB's cause by playing slow, grinding cricket. Consequently, attendances were poor and the media clamoured for the Australian team to return to full strength.

On the other hand, WSC, with its aggressive marketing, nighttime play and plethora of one-day matches, had increased both attendances and television ratings. The targeted audience of women and children flocked to WSC, which seemed to have updated cricket to the late twentieth century. The playing standard remained high, and most participants of the series later commented that it was the toughest cricket that they ever played, Tests included.

The Supertest final at the SCG between Australian and the World teams, played under lights, drew almost 40,000 spectators over three days. The sixth Australia-England Test at the same venue a week later was attended by just 22,000 people for four days of play. Later in the season, the ACB scheduled two Tests against Pakistan, which brought the number of Tests played by Australia to eight. This overkill further damaged the ACB's finances. The Pakistanis played their WSC men in what turned out to be an ill-tempered series.

WSC then headed to the Caribbean
WSC Tour of West Indies
The Australian Newspaper reported that never before had an Australian XI led by Ian Chappell been so humiliated in defeat. Australia had started well reducing the West Indies to 119-7. But Clive Lloyd as he had done so often before, resisted scoring a vital 56, aputting on 40 runs for the last...

 for a tense, hard fought series that players from both Australia and West Indies declared the best they ever played in. A riot marred the Guyana
Bourda
The Bourda is a cricket ground in Georgetown, Guyana, used by the Guyanese cricket team for matches with other nations in the Caribbean as well as some Test matches involving the West Indies. Located in Bourda in Georgetown, Guyana, between Regent Street and North Road, it is home to the Georgetown...

 Supertest, but the five Supertests and 12 one-day matches went some way toward reducing the debts of the West Indies board. The last cricket action of WSC occurred on 10 April 1979, the final day of a drawn Supertest at Antigua
Antigua Recreation Ground
Antigua Recreation Ground is the national stadium of Antigua and Barbuda. It is located in St. John's, on the island of Antigua. The ground has been used by the West Indies cricket team and Antigua and Barbuda national football team...

. The West Indies and Australia finished the series 1-1.

The rapprochement

By 1979, the ACB was in desperate financial straits and faced with the prospect of fighting an opponent who had seemingly bottomless cash resources. In two seasons, the combined losses of the two biggest cricket associations, New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...

 and Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...

, totalled more than half a million dollars. However, Packer too was feeling the financial pinch - many years later, WSC insiders claimed that the losses he incurred were very much higher than the amounts quoted at the time. During March of that year, Packer instigated a series of meetings with then chairman of the ACB board, Bob Parish CMG OBE which hammered out an agreement on the future of Australian cricket.

When Parish announced the truce on 30 May 1979, a surprise was in store for followers of the game. Not only had Channel Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

 won the exclusive rights to telecast Australian cricket, it was granted a ten-year contract to promote and market the game through a new company, PBL Marketing. The ACB capitulation infuriated the English authorities and the ICC as they had provided much in the way of financial and moral support to the ACB, which now appeared to have sold out to Packer. According to the 1980 issue of Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...

:
The feeling in many quarters was that when the Australian Board first found Packer at their throats, the rest of the cricket world supported them to the hilt; even to the extent of highly expensive court cases which cricket could ill afford. Now, when it suited Australia, they had brushed their friends aside to meet their own ends.

The WSC Australian players (on tour in the West Indies at the time) had no input into the negotiations. This left some disillusioned and apprehensive that they may suffer discrimination from the ACB in the coming years. The ACB opted to not select WSC-contracted players for the tours of England (for the 1979 World Cup
1979 Cricket World Cup
The 1979 Cricket World Cup was the second edition of the tournament and was won by the West Indies. It was held from June 9 to June 23, 1979 in England. The format had remained unchanged from 1975. Eight countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in 2 groups of 4...

) and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 (for six Tests) later in the year. Both tours produced sub-standard Australian performances, and both were led by Kim Hughes
Kim Hughes
Kimberley John Hughes is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Tests between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a "rebel" Australian team in a tour of South Africa, who at the time were subject to a sporting boycott.A right-handed...

.

For the 1979-80 season, Greg Chappell
Greg Chappell
Gregory Stephen Chappell MBE is a former cricketer who captained Australia between 1975 and 1977 and then joined the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation, before returning to the Australian captaincy in 1979, a position he held until his retirement 1983...

 was restored as Australian captain and the team contained an even mixture of WSC and non-WSC players. The season's schedule mimicked the WSC format. England and the West Indies toured, playing three Tests each against Australia, with a triangular one-day tournament (the World Series Cup
World Series Cup
The World Series Cup was the name of the One Day International cricket tournament that took place in Australia every season between Australia and two touring teams from 1979-80 to 1995-96. The tournament was renamed the World Series from 1990-1. This was the very first of the One Day International ...

) interspersed among the Tests. Australia's results were mixed: in the Test matches, they defeated England 3-0 (having lost 5-1 to the same opponents the previous summer) but lost 0-2 to the West Indies, and they failed to make the final of the one-day tournament. The format of the season received heavy criticism, but still made a healthy profit, much of which went to PBL rather than the ACB.

Legacy

World Series Cricket changed the game in many ways. Due to the punishing schedule, cricketers had to be fitter than ever before. The West Indies in particular dominated world cricket during the 1980s due to World Series Cricket.

Night matches have become very common in most nations, and one-day cricket has become the most widely followed form of the game (though this is being threatened by Twenty20
Twenty20
Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in England for professional inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board , in 2003. A Twenty20 game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs. Twenty20 cricket is also known as T20 cricket...

 cricket). Players are full-time professionals, and at least in the larger cricketing nations are very well-paid, mainly through television rights; broadcasters now have a huge say in the running of the game.

However, the traditional form of the game, Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

, is still played around the world, and in recent seasons has challenged one-day cricket for the interest of the public. Indeed, membership of a Test Cricket side is often seen as being more prestigious for players, both due to the more challenging nature of the format and the higher turnover rate of one day players. Kerry Packer described his involvement in World Series Cricket as "half-philanthropic".

Marketing was a major tool for World Series Cricket, and they revolutionised the way cricket in Australia was marketed, with the catchy C'mon Aussie C'mon
C'mon Aussie C'mon
"C'mon Aussie C'mon" is an Australian Cricket anthem.Originally performed by the Mojo Singers in 1978 as an advertising jingle to promote World Series Cricket's unofficial Australian cricket team, the song eulogised players such as Dennis Lillee, the Chappell brothers Ian and Greg and Rod Marsh. It...

 theme song, the simple logo, the coloured clothing worn by the players and a range of merchandise. All of these techniques pioneered by World Series Cricket have become a staple of the way the game is now marketed in Australia.

In the Australian team, there was a division between the players who stayed loyal to the official XI and the Packer rebels. Especially between players such as Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...

, Rod Marsh
Rod Marsh
Rodney William Marsh MBE is a former Australian wicketkeeper.A colourful character, Marsh had a Test career spanning from the 1970–71 to the 1983–84 Australian season. In 96 Tests, he set a world record of 355 wicketkeeping dismissals, the same number his pace bowling Western...

, former WSC players and Kim Hughes
Kim Hughes
Kimberley John Hughes is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Tests between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a "rebel" Australian team in a tour of South Africa, who at the time were subject to a sporting boycott.A right-handed...

 who stuck with the official side. The division went on into the 1980s. Many of WSC's players fitted back into the official Australian side, though a handful of players from outside WSC remained at the highest level, most notably Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...

.

The ACB continued to use the name "World Series Cup
World Series Cup
The World Series Cup was the name of the One Day International cricket tournament that took place in Australia every season between Australia and two touring teams from 1979-80 to 1995-96. The tournament was renamed the World Series from 1990-1. This was the very first of the One Day International ...

" to describe the One Day International tournament it held during each summer, usually involving Australia and two other international teams. This format was from WSC's International Cup. The name was used until the mid 1990s.

Results & Statistics

Miscellaneous

  • During the life of WSC, 56,126 runs were made and 2,364 wickets taken. The 1977 ruling of the ICC that the matches were not first-class has remained, so none of the WSC players' records include the runs and wickets of the WSC era.
  • Originally, the balls used in day-night matches were to be yellow, not white.
  • WSC's advertising jingle "C'mon Aussie C'mon
    C'mon Aussie C'mon
    "C'mon Aussie C'mon" is an Australian Cricket anthem.Originally performed by the Mojo Singers in 1978 as an advertising jingle to promote World Series Cricket's unofficial Australian cricket team, the song eulogised players such as Dennis Lillee, the Chappell brothers Ian and Greg and Rod Marsh. It...

    " was released as a single and was number one on the Australian charts in February 1979.
  • The vast majority of WSC matches were played in whites. The first match to feature coloured uniforms was a limited overs match, WSC Australia versus WSC West Indies at the SCG, played under lights on 17 January 1979.
  • McDonalds also promoted the game through printed colour posters, with signatures of all players.
  • In the last final, Ian Chappell
    Ian Chappell
    Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...

     bowled a 4 wide delivery, to avoid opposition captain Tony Greig
    Tony Greig
    Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...

     scoring the winning runs.

See also

  • Cricket World Cup
    Cricket World Cup
    The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...

  • Limited overs cricket
  • South African rebel tours
    South African rebel tours
    The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...

  • Indian Cricket League
    Indian Cricket League
    The Indian Cricket League was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that operated between 2007 and 2009 in India...


External links


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