Packer

The Centenary Test in March 1977 was a landmark event in the history of cricket. But few realised during the momentous Test that the game was soon to be shaken up like never before.

Cricketers at that time were not earning pots of money and to live a decent life, they had to earn from other jobs. Boards all over the world earned good revenue from gate receipts and media rights, but the players received pittance. But they didn’t know how to improve their situation.

It so happened that Tony Greig, who captained England in the Centenary Test, planned to retire and settle down in Australia. He wanted to explore a career in the media. He sought out Mr Kerry Packer — who owned Australia’s Channel 9 TV network, besides several newspapers and magazines.

Just before that, Packer’s offer of 1.5 million Australian dollars as broadcasting rights for Australia’s Test and first-class matches had been turned down by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB).

The rebuffed Packer hatched a plan. Coincidentally, the first step involved speaking to Greig.

The pair met at Packer’s Sydney mansion. Before Greig could explain what he wanted, Packer said he had a proposal, provided Greig swore secrecy. Greig did, and Packer revealed his plan.

He wanted to start his own international competition, on parallel terms with the International Cricket Council-run programme. He would recruit the best players in the world by offering them salaries well above what they were receiving playing for their respective countries. The kind of figures he had in mind would be enough for the players to live on and set them up for a comfortable retired life.

The offer was too good to refuse. Packer wanted Greig to help him by recruiting top players. Packer had already signed Ian Chappell to lead an Australian team, and wanted Greig to skipper a World XI team to take them on.

Before leaving Australia, Greig spoke to teammates John Snow, Allan Knott and Derek Underwood and told them to meet him at the Churchill Hotel back in London, where he would discuss “something big”. Greig then flew to Port of Spain, where the West Indies were about to begin the fourth Test of their series against Pakistan. Packer wanted a full West Indies unit to be the third team in his World Series Cricket (WSC).

Armed with a 45-minute video, recorded by Ian Chappell to convince them of the feasibility of Packer’s plan, Greig signed up eight West Indian stars within two days. Till that time, the West Indians were the worst-paid players in international cricket.

Greig next convinced Pakistanis Imran Khan, Majid Khan, Asif Iqbal and captain Mushtaq Mohammed to join the Packer bandwagon. Greig then returned to England for the arranged meeting with the English trio. Also joining them were South Africans Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Mike Procter, Eddie Barlow and Dennis Hobson — who were all affected by the Apartheid-related ban imposed by the ICC on South Africa. Not unexpectedly, the South Africans took no time to accept the offer.

That’s how the WSC started. Cricketers at the highest level have never complained of poor pay since that day.