World Series Cricket - June 1977

Tony Greig and Kerry Packer relax at the Dorchester © The Cricketer

June 1 At a press conference Kerry Packer insists that "it's not a pirate series but a Super-Test series. I've sent telegrams to all the cricketing bodies but they won't reply. I'm willing to compromise but time is running out." He refers to cricket as "the easiest sport in the world to take over. Nobody bothered to pay the players what they were worth."

June 2 During a tea interval interview on BBC television at the Old Trafford Prudential Trophy match, Geoff Boycott states that he refused to sign a Packer contract - after having shown initial interest - when he discovered it was for a term of three years and would almost certainly have meant missing some Yorkshire cricket. Greig, he said, was on a contract of more than three years and "lot more money". Mushtaq's contract was for only two years. Asked what benefit it would give ordinary run-of-the-mill cricketers, Boycott replies: "Nothing. As Arthur Robinson, one of our bowlers, said - I'm still waiting for some of these things Tony Greig has promised us."

This evening, on The Frost Programme, Packer says: "I put Tony Greig in a pretty tough situation because I said to Greig when I first spoke to him that until the thing that I was doing was announced, under no circumstances was he to make any public utterance...So, having once told him, there was no way he could go to the board and remain a man of honour...I don't know of any business in the world which is done on the basis of people going to their opposition and telling them that they're about to do a deal and giving them the opportunity to stop them... All those cricketers are available to play for their countries. Now please don't blame me if the cricketers don't play Test cricket. I will bend over backwards to make them available and there will be no change to county cricket and there will be no change to Test cricket in England if we got together with the board. If we don't get together with the Board it's a different matter."

June 3 During a phone-in programme on LBC Radio, Packer says that if the authorities will not negotiate now, in the first year of the Super-Tests, they probably would later. "I don't want to administer world cricket. I just want to give Australia a great series." He does not think he will make money out of the deal in the first year. "We just might in the long run." The series, he says, could be fitted into a six-week period. The Test series could be arranged so as not to clash, he believes.

June 13 It is announced that Dennis Amiss of England and Alvin Kallicharran and Collis King of West Indies have signed agreements with Packer, taking the total of players signed to 38.

June 14 At the end of a seven-hour emergency meeting of the International Cricket Conference at Lord's it is announced that "Mr Kerry Packer is being advised that should he wish to discuss his plans with representatives of the Test match-playing countries, a meeting will be arranged at the earliest convenient opportunity." Packer at that moment was on his way back to Australia.

Delegates at the meeting were: Australia - R. J. Parish, R. C. Steele; England - F. R. Brown, D. J. Insole; India - R. P. Mehra, Ghulam Ahmed; Pakistan - Asaf Ali, Colonel Zafar Ahmad; West Indies - A. F. Rae, H. J. Burnett; New Zealand - A. S. Wright, M. C. Cowdrey.

June 15 Bernard Julien of West Indies confirms that he has joined the Packer circus, on a three-year contract. The squad now numbers 39, although Packer says the figure is nearer 50.

June 17 Gordon Greenidge of West Indies announces that he has signed.

June 19 John Maley resigns from the Packer organisation and is reinstated as QCA groundsman at Brisbane.

June 23 Talks between the ICC and Packer break down after the conference has tabled the following five conditions upon which they would recommend the approval of the various boards of the projected privately-promoted series:

1. The programme and grounds to be acceptable to the home authority and the length of programme to be six weeks, unless otherwise agreed. The matches to be under the control of the home authority and played in accordance with the laws of cricket.

2. No player to participate in these games without the permission of his home authority. This permission would not be withheld unreasonably.

3. No teams taking part in these matches to be represented as national teams (i.e. not Australian, possibly an Australian XI).

4. Players contracted to Mr Packer to be available for Test matches, first-class fixtures and other home authority sponsored matches where there is no clash.

5. The home authority to be able to honour all contractual commitments to existing sponsors and advertisers.

Packer's demand for exclusive television rights in Australia from 1978-79 onwards, when the Australian Broadcasting Commission's agreement runs out, is rejected, and further discussion is rendered impossible. Packer - who is accompanied by David McNicoll (director of Consolidated Press), Lynton Taylor (executive of Packer's television company), and Richie Benaud - claims he has 16 West Indians signed up and says as he leaves Lord's: "After this, I will take no steps at all to help anyone. It is every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost."

June 24 It is announced that a special meeting of the TCCB will be held on July 15, with the object of channelling any recommendations which may emerge through the Cricket Council to the full meeting of the ICC on July 26-27.

June 30 Packer states that three of his matches will be played at VFL Park, Melbourne, a comparatively new sports ground with a capacity of 80,000. A turf pitch prepared in concrete trays will be lifted into position, and can be transported to grounds which have no established cricket square.

He also promises an "all-out scrap" if any of the players in his troupe were banned by international authorities. Retaliatory action he will consider includes playing some of his matches in England, and staging others during the forthcoming Australia-India Test series, in the same cities. Players under contract to him, he says, will start an organisation for professional cricketers to take over the running of the series. He discounts reports that some players are having second thoughts about the venture.