The Indian, England and Australian cricket boards recently proposed (and won) a structural overhaul of the International Cricket Council (ICC) that would give three boards (the ‘Big Three’) more say and money in and from the workings of the international cricket body.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), or the 'Big Three' as they are now referred to, required seven votes (out of 10) to get their proposal accepted. The proposal argues that an increase in power and profits was the right of the 'Big Three' because they were generating the most money from and for the game.
Four of the remaining seven boards (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa) exhibited reservations about the proposal, with some well-known former players and cricket officials from these countries warning that if the 'Big Three' get what they are suggesting, it could split the ICC and damage the game.
New Zealand and West Indian boards sided with the 'Big Three' leaving the remaining four trying to find a way that would be beneficial to all parties.
Nevertheless, the Bangladesh and South African boards decided to vote for the proposal, whereas Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained.
This latest crisis in international cricket is (thus far) the only one in which the voices of the players has not been heard.
They have largely remained silent in spite of the fact that it is on their performances and star power that the boards rely to attract the crowds and, especially, the lucrative sponsorships from multinationals and from media outlets that these players draw.
Though the 'Big Three' have at times described the changes that they are suggesting in the workings of the ICC as ‘revolutionary’, they are anything but.
It’s more like a family feud between the elders of a family of 10 who are bickering about who gets what and how much from the money that the business of cricket makes.
Critics have accused the 'Big Three' of playing politics of greed and coercion.
The current crisis in cricket has its roots in one of the most profound and influential revolutions in world cricket.
A revolution that was initiated in the late 1970s and went on to impact the game like never before.
But if the revolution was so profound and good for the game, how can one suggest that what the 'Big Three' are asking for today is also part of the cricketing revolution that erupted more than 35 years ago?
The revolution that I am referring to emerged in the shape of ‘World Series Cricket’ (WSC); an idea furnished and bankrolled by Australian media tycoon, Kerry Packer.
Though, initially, it only managed to break teams and compel cricket boards to ban all those players who dared to sign up with Packer, the ideas that he introduced into cricket soon went on to define and design international cricket from the 1980s onwards.
Night cricket, white balls, black sightscreens, coloured clothing and games covered by multiple TV cameras, these were but just a few radical ideas infused by Packer and which became mainstays of world cricket, and still are.
The other major aspect of the Packer revolution was financial. Sensing that the players were never happy about the kind of money their boards were paying them, Packer offered the players salaries and perks that until then were unheard of in cricket.
Packer’s WSC introduced full-blown multinational sponsorships and changed the dynamics of how a board needed to make money.
Though the mainstream cricket boards at the time scoffed at Packer and accused him of introducing greed and strife to the game, these boards would eventually go on to adopt the same dynamics and tactics first initiated by the Australian.
It is true that this aspect of the Packer revolution also triggered the more shady sides of big money in the game, but his tactics did help cricket to become a rich sport and bag numerous new fans and flashier players.
But while the 'Big Three' today are trying to do another 'Packer' in world cricket, they are doing so without offering any new innovations that can further the cause of the game.
Their suggested ‘revolution’ lacks the vision exhibited by Packer. It is just about old men in grey suits myopically asking for a bigger piece of the pie.
And what’s more, as the 'Big Three' juice the players across numerous mind-numbing tournaments (such as the IPL) the players have had no say whatsoever in the current strife taking place in world cricket.
Packer’s revolution, perhaps the biggest and most influential in all cricketing history, on the other hand, was both derived from as well as driven by the players.
Before the storm
Though the Packer revolution broke out in 1977, its seeds lay in the Australian cricket team of the early 1970s that was led by the hot-headed and outspoken, Ian Chappell.
Till the early 1970s cricket was one of the most conservative and change-immune sports in the world. It was also one of the lowest-paying.
But if not its financial sides, its cultural moorings began to be impacted by the social and aesthetic flamboyance of the 1970s.
In his 1976 book, ‘Sunny Days,’ classic former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar mentions how in the early 1970s it was Ian Chappell’s Australian team that first began to introduce a more flamboyant sense of fashion and play to the game.
Chappell’s side discarded the aesthetics and antics of the ‘gentleman’s game’ and took the field like beer-chugging brawlers with long hair, thick sideburns and bare chests.
They became trendsetters, especially after Australia blew away England (4-1) and then the West Indies (5-1) in 1974-75.
They bulldozed the two teams in an unprecedented and ruthless manner, verbally abusing the opponents (‘sledging’) on the field and letting loose a fast bowling attack that included Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillie, both bowling at over 95 mph and gleefully confessing that they liked to see the batsmen bleed.
The aggressive attitude and flashy fashion sense of the Australian team, inspired by the hard-drinking American football and baseball players of the period, began to attract massive crowds to the grounds.
For example, during the 1975 Australia-West Indies series, the opening day of the third Test match in Melbourne saw 85,661 spectators turn up.
Crowds were also turning up in big numbers in other parts of the cricketing world as well, and with the introduction of the Cricket World Cup in 1975 (based on the still young ODI format), cricket boards began to make a lot more money than before.
However, the players remained underpaid. And ironically, though the Australian side was the best paid side at the time (compared to other teams), it was the Australian skipper, Ian Chappell, who first seriously raised the issue of a pay raise.
Chappell who was a vocal supporter of Australia’s left-wing Labour Party and a firm advocate of having a players’ union, quit the captaincy and the game in 1975 after his demands for a pay raise for his players were rejected by the Australian board.
Similar murmurings also began to be heard in the West Indian side that had revamped itself with a string of genuine fast bowlers and was attracting huge crowds everywhere it went.
In Pakistan, the team’s captain, Mushtaq Mohammad, raised the pay issue with the Pakistan cricket board only to be rudely snubbed.
Players could not eke out a living purely on the bases of what they got from playing Tests. Many of them had to spend summers in England to play exhaustive country cricket or look for employment outside of cricket as well.
In late 1976, Mushtaq was almost fired as captain when he insisted that the players be given extra allowance to manage their laundry on tours!
As Chappell was sulking against the Australian board, and the West Indian players were quietly wondering where all the money being charged from the big crowds that they were attracting was going, Packer, was trying to revive the failing fortunes of his TV channel, Channel 9.
Seeing the enormous rise in the popularity of cricket in Australia after the Australian side thrashed England and the West Indies, Packer offered to buy the rights of telecasting Australian Test matches in Australia for a period of three years.
He offered the Australian cricket board a huge sum (compared to what it was getting from Australia’s state-owned TV channel, ABC), but the board refused the offer and renewed its contract with ABC.
Desperate to get cricket on his channel, Packer then tried to hold a few exhibition games involving the Australian team and a side made up of players from around the world.
The idea was to get the players on board for a couple of games. But things began to take a more meaningful turn when Packer was provided a list of Australian players (by Ian Chappell) who would be interested in playing for him for a longer period of time.
After noticing Chappell’s interest and claim that a number of Australian players may be interested in striking a lengthier deal with him, Packer now looked for a non-Australian to expand his idea of recruiting players from around the world willing to play exhibition matches for his TV network.
He got in touch with England player and captain, Tony Greig. He signed him up for his yet non-existent international side. He also secretly hired him to become his main recruiting agent whose job it was to quietly pick up cricket stars from around the world.
By March 1977 Chappell and Greig had secretly recruited quite a few Australian and England players, most of whom were busy playing a special Australia-England Centenary Test in Melbourne. The English and Australian boards had no clue what was transpiring.
A month before, Greig had also visited the West Indies where Pakistan was playing a five-Test series against the home side. There he had held secret meetings with the Pakistani and West Indian captains.
The secret finally came out during the 1977 Australian tour of England when a list of Australian and England players who had signed up with Packer was leaked to the press.
The English cricket board at once removed Greig from the captaincy, even though he retained his place in the side. And as the Australian board and press began its vicious attack on the recruited players, Australia slid towards a 3-1 defeat against its arch-rivals.
Sensing that the cat was now well and truly out of the bag, Packer flew to London to address the bewildered media and strike a compromise with the ICC.
He hired respected TV commentator and former Australian captain, Richie Benaud, as his media adviser.
Talking to famous journalist and interviewer, David Frost, on BBC TV, Packer for the first time shared his vision of turning cricket into a lucrative and well-paying game and how he thought TV could be used to make it a more recognised sport.
He said he was willing to strike a deal with the ICC only if the Australian board would give his TV channel the right to cover cricket games in Australia.
He had also shown interest to pay a large sum to cover the Australia-England series of 1977. But the contract to cover the series was handed to the Australian state television (ABC) that paid 14 per cent less than what Packer was offering.
Packer was still only interested in getting a broadcasting contract from the Australian cricket board and would have dropped his plans for holding special exhibition games had the cricket boards decided to give him what he was looking for.
But egged on by the tabloid press, the ICC and its member boards simply refused to negotiate any deal that would threaten the status quo.
By now almost the entire Australian and many West Indian players had signed up with Packer. Five players each from Pakistan and England signed up and a plethora of top South African players were on board as well. South Africa was facing isolation at the time due to the country’s racist apartheid policies and most of its players were playing their cricket in the English County circuit.
No Indian player agreed to join and just one New Zealander, Richard Hadlee, signed up. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the time did not have Test status and its players were not approached.
The five Pakistanis who signed up were Mushtaq Mohammed, Asif Iqbal, Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan and Imran Khan.
The ICC announced that the matches being planned by Packer would not be recognised by the ICC and the players who had signed up with him would be banned from playing Test cricket by their respective countries.
After the announcement, two leading players who had signed up with Packer withdrew from their contracts. They were Australian fast bowler, Jeff Thomson, and West Indian batsman, Alvin Kallicharan.
To prevent further desertions, Packer fully backed and bankrolled the case of Tony Greig and former England fast bowler, John Snow, against the English cricket board in the London High Court (regarding their contracts with Packer).
The case lasted for seven weeks but was eventually seen as a victory for Packer. In his concluding judgment, the judge remarked: “Professional cricketers need to make a living and the ICC should not stand in their way just because its own interests might be damaged. The ICC might have stretched the concept of loyalty too far. Players could not be criticised for entering the contracts in secrecy …”
The ICC retaliated by decreeing that the matches that Packer was planning to organise would not be allowed to be called Tests. What’s more, the international cricket body also disallowed Packer from using the official rules of cricket because they were copyrighted and owned by the ICC and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which at the time was England’s main cricketing body.
A painful birth
In late 1977, Packer unveiled WSC’s official logo. But in the face of all the restrictions imposed by the ICC, Packer’s think-tank led by Richie Benaud, had to come up with various innovations.
Many of these innovations, like coloured clothing, white balls, multinational sponsorship and giving the game a more festive look, were unprecedented in the world of cricket at the time. The press reacted by dubbing WSC as the ‘Packer Circus’.
Packer was also not allowed to hold WSC matches on established cricket stadiums. So he leased four football stadiums, (in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney).
Since it was difficult to prepare suitable pitches on these grounds, Packer hired experts to create ‘drop-in pitches.’ These were prepared in hothouses, transported on trucks to the grounds and then laid there by large cranes.
A number of frontline Australian players were already signed up and the Australian board had to field a whole new side for its series against the touring Indians. Former Australian captain, Bobby Simpson, was recalled (at the age of 43), to lead an almost entirely new side.
The five Pakistani and English players were banned by their respective countries’ boards and they joined the South Africans to make-up the World team at the WSC.
Initially, the idea was that the WSC Australians would play a series of ‘Super Tests’ and ODIs against the World team that had also included a few West Indian players.
However, during the first season of the WSC, almost all of the West Indian side that was busy playing a series (in the West Indies) against the depleted Australians, was banned by the West Indian cricket board after the third Test of the series. At least 14 West Indies players had signed up with Packer. Alvin Kallicharan became the new West Indies captain.
WSC now had three teams: The WSC Australians; the WSC West Indians; and the WSC World. All the matches were to be telecast by Packer’s Channel 9 Sports.
Ian Chappell was made the captain of the Australian side, Clive Lloyd of the West Indies side and Tony Greig was to lead the World team.
In another unprecedented move, Packer brought in the famous American fast-food chain, McDonalds, as the main sponsors of the WSC. Multinational sponsorship was almost unheard of in cricket in those days.
The first WSC game was played in December 1977. It was a Super Test between the WSC Australians and WSC West Indians. The game attracted just a handful of spectators and was a commercial flop.
But crowds slowly began to grow as Packer introduced more innovations like different coloured clothing for the three teams, white balls, and black sightscreens.
He also pumped in more money in the marketing aspect of his ‘circus’, using players like Dennis Lillie, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Imran Khan as the main models in WSC advertisements.
For example, when Packer introduced night cricket, WSC’s advertising agency came up with the suggestive slogan ‘Big Boys Play at Night.’
It used WSC’s top players to appear in T-Shirts with the slogan scribbled on top of the WSC logo. It also used famous female models, some of whom had appeared in the Australian edition of Playboy to pose for WSC.
The WSC image was built around the idea that its boys played hard and partied even harder.
Though the crowds were beginning to build, the progress in this respect was too slow for Packer who also thought that the quality of cricket was not up to the mark.
In his autobiography, ‘Supercat’, former West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd, mentions how during one of the games in early 1978, Packer barged into the West Indies dressing-room and threatened them that he would cancel their contracts if the players did not lift their game.
‘You will not be able to play for me and nor for your country because they have banned you.’ He told the players.
Lloyd goes on to write that it was Packer who first introduced the idea of a fitness regime overseen by a professional coach in cricket.
‘For the first time the players were told ways to keep fit that they had never known about. After that our game improved tremendously,’ Lloyd writes.
Another first introduced in cricket by WSC was the batting helmet. Since the WSC players were playing on tricky tracks and in front of some of the time’s quickest bowlers, the batsmen began to suffer a constant barrage of injuries.
The worst was when aggressive left-handed Australian batsman, David Hooks, (who had hooked West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts for a six), received a nasty bouncer by Roberts. The ball struck Hooks on the jaw and shattered it.
In the next game that saw the Australians take on the World side, the crowd was amused when the World XI player, Dennis Amiss, walked in wearing a crash helmet custom-made for him by the UK cricket goods company, St. Peter (SP).
The revolution
The quality of cricket and the crowds picked up at the end of the first WSC season.
But since the games were only being telecast by Channel 9 and played on non-cricketing stadiums in Australia, WSC was still not being taken seriously by the international cricketing fraternity.
All the innovations introduced by the WSC were mocked for being ‘impractical’ and ‘gimmicky.’
The WSC players were largely treated as outcasts by their respective countries’ cricket boards.
However, in January 1978, just before the third Test match between Pakistan and the visiting England side in Karachi, the Pakistan cricket board went against the dictates of the ICC and lifted the ban on its five WSC players.
The first two Tests (in Lahore and Hyderabad) that had attracted large crowds had ended in dull draws. Pakistan was being led by its new captain, Wasim Bari.
The banned players arrived from Australia a few days before the third Test and were expected to play but were suddenly pulled out of the team.
In his autobiography, ‘Inside Out,’ former Pakistan captain, Mushtaq Mohammed, says that two reasons forced the board to pull them out.
First, the England side threatened to boycott the Test if Pakistan played its WSC players. Second, some Pakistani players who had not joined the WSC also threatened to pull out because they thought it would be unfair to the players who hadn’t ‘sold out to Packer.’
But when Pakistan badly lost its away series against England in the summer of 1978 and was set to play its first Test series against India (after 18 years) in late 1978, the government again lifted the ban on the WSC players.
Mushtaq was back as captain and so were Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Imran Khan. Pakistan went on to win the series 2-0.
The barrage of genuine fast bowlers playing for the WSC on fast pitches had exposed a number of players.
For example, the World team’s skipper, Tony Greig, though an excellent player of fast bowling, completely lost his form and confidence. So did Pakistan’s Mushtaq Mohammed.
For the second WSC season (1978-79), Asif Iqbal replaced Greig as captain of the World side. Mushtaq’s contract was not renewed and Roberts broke Majid’s jaw!
And since the WSC players were under contract, the Pakistan board had to request Packer to allow the players to play for Pakistan.
During Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand in early 1979, Imran, Zaheer and Asif were not available for the first Test. What’s more, by the end of the team’s tour of Australia the same year, three more Pakistanis signed up for WSC: Javed Miandad, Haroon Rasheed and Sarfraz Nawaz.
The resistance against WSC had begun to weaken. Magazines and footage arriving from Australia showing players playing under lights in coloured clothing and with white balls began to fire the common cricket fan’s imagination.
The West Indies board lifted the ban on its WSC players for the 1979 World Cup. In fact, financially stung by dwindling crowds and failures of its second-string side, it invited the WSC teams to tour West Indies.
And though New Zealand just had one player signed to the WSC, its board also broke away from ICC’s stand and invited the WSC sides to play a series against New Zealand in New Zealand.
That’s why WSC’s second season began with a surge of confidence. The quality of cricket grew in leaps and more crowds were coming to watch WSC games (or watching them on Channel 9) than to Tests played by Australia’s mainstream side now made-up of untested youngsters.
By 1980, Packer had gotten what he had rebelled and eventually tore the cricket world for: Rights to telecast cricket matches on his Channel 9 network. WSC’s dramatic and colourful two-year stint finally came to an end.
It was short-lived but what it introduced to the game would go on to impact world cricket in the most revolutionary manner.
Though only Australia first adopted WSC’s night games, coloured clothing and white balls, by the late 1980s, these were being used across all leading cricket playing countries.
The following are some of the many features that WSC introduced and that today have become mainstays in mainstream cricket:
• Colored clothing
• Night games
• White balls
• Black sight screens
• Helmets
• Multinational sponsorship
• Innovative/multi-angled TV coverage
• Two commentators (and sometimes more) commentating at the same time
• Former players as TV commentators (there were very few such commentators before WSC)
• Higher salaries for players
• Marketing cricket as an exciting spectator sport
• Cricket jingles
• Professional coaches and fitness experts
• Cheerleaders
• TV rights as a money-making ploy
The Squads
WSC Australia
Ian Chappell; Ray Bright; Greg Chappell; Trevor Chappell; Ian Davis; Ross Edwards; Gus Gilmour; David Hooks; Martin Kent; Bruce Laird; Rob Langer; Dennis Lillee; Rick McCosker; Garth McKenzie; Ashley Mallet; Mick Malone; Rod Marsh; Kerry O’Keef; Len Pascoe; Wayn Priolan; Ian Redpath; Max Walker; Doug Walters; Kepler Wessels (originally from SA but settled in Aus); Jeff Thomson (who signed up in 1978).
WSC West Indies
Clive Lloyd; Jim Allen; Richard Austin; Colin Croft; Wayne Daniel; Roy Fredricks; Joel Garner; Lance Gibbs; Gordon Greenidge; Desmond Haynes; Michael Holding; David Holford; Bernard Julien; Rohan Kanhai; Collis King; Deryck Murray; Albert Padmore; Viv Richards; Andy Roberts; Lawrence Rowe.
WSC World
Tony Greig (Eng); Dennis Amiss (Eng); Asif Iqbal (Pak); Eddie Barlow (SA); Richard Hadlee (NZ): Imran Khan (Pak); Alan Knott (Eng); Garth Le Roux (SA); Majid Khan (Pak); Mushtaq Mohammed (Pak); Mike Procter (SA); Clive Rice (SA); Barry Richards (SA); John Snow (Eng); Bob Woolmer (Eng); Zaheer Abbas (Pak); Javed Miandad, Haroon Rasheed, Taslim Arif and Sarfraz Nawaz (all from Pakistan) joined in 1979.