Kerry Packer

A strong case can be made that the late Australian media magnate Kerry Packer was the most influential non-player in the history of Australian cricket.

The former Cricket Australia Chairman Bob Merriman argued that Sir Donald Bradman and Kerry Packer were the ‘...two greatest influences in the last 100 years of Australian cricket’.

Certainly, Kerry Packer through World Series Cricket (WSC) made cricket exciting content for broadcasting, and therefore accelerated the growth of player payments, for which the generations of international cricketers since 1977 are eternally grateful. Beyond that, many of the sport’s most significant advancements had their genesis in the ‘Packer Revolution’, including night cricket, coloured clothing and high-quality television coverage. One-day international cricket wasn’t truly accepted in Australia until Kerry Packer promoted it.

It is impossible to underestimate how dissatisfied the stars of the ’70s were with the way the game was being run. Packer, who wanted the rights to telecast cricket on his Nine Network, tapped into this acrimony. Players from across the world, including the equivalent of two Australian teams, quickly signed contracts during the mid-1970s to be part of a venture that would run in direct competition with traditional Test cricket.

Less well remembered is the often virulent media coverage he received during WSC’s early days, but withstood. His venture, the cynics sneered, was a ‘circus’; his players were ‘mercenaries’; he was ‘evil’. But he’d inherited his toughness from his father, the media magnate Sir Frank Packer and enjoyed being able to repay the cricketers who’d backed him with unflinching loyalty and vastly improved salaries.

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Most of the 1977 Australian Test team signed with World Series Cricket, leaving the national side weakened and depleted.

(L- R) Ray Bright, Kerry O’Keefe, Jeff Thomson, Max Walker, Geoff Dymock, Rick McCosker, Rod Marsh (vice-captain), Mick Malone, Greg Chappell (captain), Gary Cosier, Doug Walters, Richie Robinson, Ian Davis, Len Pascoe, David Hookes, Craig Serjeant, Kim Hughes.

The newspapers and cricket media outlets alike - in both Australia and England - were initially very hostile to Kerry Packer and World Series Cricket in 1977. Yet readers sometimes did react (in support of Kerry Packer's WSC), such as this Letter to the Editor page in The Cricketer magazine 1978.

WSC — featuring teams representing ‘Australia’, the ‘West Indies’ and the ‘Rest of the World’ (World XI) — ran for two seasons, 1977–78 and 1978–79, after which Packer negotiated a settlement with cricket’s old guard that was resoundingly in his favour. In the process, he infused the sport with a spirit of innovation it has never lost.

World Series Cricket was masterful at marketing itself, producing colourful brochures, magazines, player cards, rewards, cushions, caps, badges, it contrasted sharply with a drab and conservative establishment, and won favour with cricket fans.

In November of 2018, the 40th anniversary of the event was commemorated by the Bradman Foundation at it's annual Gala Dinner, at the SCG.

The first white ball was used in WSC for Day/Night cricket at the SCG on 28 November 1978 (West Indies v Australia). It is currently exhibited in the World Series Cricket Gallery at Bradman Museum.

Although controversial at the time, the white ball was developed to be easily seen by players under lights at night matches.

Today, Kerry Packer's 'World Series Cricket' has a dedicated gallery within the Bradman Museum and International Cricket Hall of Fame. It includes a film with player interviews, and a significant collection of original items...