Packer's Revolution

On this day in 1977, Kerry Packer's plan of new cricketing series called as World Series Cricket and also his secret recruiting process of international cricketers from Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand. This included prominent names Tony Greig, Sir Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Dennis Lillee and much more. After getting this news, John Arlott called it as "Packer's Circus", Tony Greig was sacked from captaincy, and Australian Cricket Board ( ACB ) became furious. 

You might wonder why there are these much issues and also you would be asking what is Packer's Revolution to me. We need to shift our time back to 1974, where Sir Frank, the owner of Channel Nine Network died, his position was shifted to Kerry Packer, an Australian based media magnate. He is an ardent fan of sports and bought Australian Golf telecasting rights. He was very keen to buy rights for telecasting Australian Test cricket season, and offered $1.5 million to Australian Cricket Board, for 3 years. But they refused to provide rights as they wanted to follow their tradition of telecasting Australian cricket matches Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) which were been doing already for 20 years. He even approached Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), even offering double the amount, but they refused. 

His passion of telecasting cricket in his channel and also the problem of low pay income for cricketers all over the world, forced him to recruit players secretly by offering a much pay to play in this World Series Cricket. It was a war between Australian Cricket Board and Kerry Packer. The case went to the court and it gave justice favorable to Kerry Packer. It held for two seasons in 1977 - 1979, with first season gaining less audience while the second season garnered more audience. It was the time during which day/night test matches were introduced, also introduction of color dress in cricket. During this time, Australian cricket were in deep hole as they were losing many matches with less experienced and inevitable cricket side

The players of World Series Cricket avoided their nation's cricket during the tournament season, which showed the downfall of Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Test matches were named as "Supertests". Also, during this period, floodlights were introduced, particularly installed at Sydney Cricket Ground. The ODI matches were started to dominate the Test Cricket. 

At 1979, Australian Cricket Board awarded broadcasting rights to Kerry Packer's for 10 years along with marketing rights to PBL. Tony Greigg was retained as captain and the payments were made high, which marked a revolution in cricket. In 2012, there was a film made about this Revolution named as "Howzatt : Kerry Packer's War".