World Series Cricket

This article is about the original cricket competition. For the subsequent cricket competition also referred to as the world series see: Australian Tri-Series.
World Series Cricket
AdministratorKerry Packer
FormatVarious
First edition1977
Latest edition1979
Number of teamsFour:
Australia XI
Cavaliers XI
Rest Of The World XI
West Indies XI
Most runsGreg Chappell
Most wicketsDennis Lillee
ABC news report of the first WSC match.

World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established international cricket. World Series Cricket drastically changed the nature of cricket, and its influence continues to be felt today.

Three main factors caused the formation of WSC — a widespread view that players were not paid sufficient amounts to make a living from cricket or reflect their market value and that following the development of colour television and increased viewer audiences of sports events, the commercial potential of cricket was not being achieved by the established cricket boards and Packer wished to secure the exclusive broadcasting rights to Australian cricket, then held by the non-commercial, government-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), to realise and capitalise on the commercial potential of cricket.

After the Australian Cricket Board (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 captain Tony Greig, West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, Australian captain Greg Chappell, future Pakistani captain Imran Khan and former Australian captain Ian Chappell. Packer was aided by businessmen John Cornell and Austin Robertson, both of whom were involved with the initial setup and administration of the series.

Australian Captain Ian Chappell summed up the quality of World Series Cricket by saying it was the toughest cricket that he ever played (having all the best players in the world involved).[1]

  1. ^ Burnett, Adam (25 November 2015). "Cricket Australia Recognise World Series Cricket Statistics". Cricket.com.au. Retrieved 12 July 2022.