1/13/2024 0 Comments Kerry packer rescue![]() Tony Greig, Asif Iqbal and Mushtaq were in company. A gambler by reputation, he was once reported to have won 33 million Australian dollars at the MGM casino in Las Vegas.ĭuring that seven-week court hearing which started on Sept 26, 1977, I was phoned by Mushtaq Mohammad to join him at the court room gallery to watch Asif Iqbal being cross examined.Īfter we came out of the court, Mushtaq asked me if I could come to the Dorchester Hotel to see Packer who had hired the entire floor where royals and rich stayed.Ī fleet of limousines took us there. It was during those court proceedings in the London High Court that I was provided with the opportunity of meeting Packer. Knowing that they have a man with the resources to damage the establishment, the boards had to succumb, eventually ending the dispute between him and the ACB, as he was given the rights for televising cricket for the next ten years. Justice Sir Christopher Slade’s decision that professional cricketers need to make a living and that the ICC should not stand in their way just because of their own interest may be damaged came as ton of bricks over the establishments.Ī victory for Packer opened the way for his private cricket circus which attracted huge crowds in Australia in the two seasons from 1977-78 to 1978-79 it lasted. The tycoon then backed the challenge to the TCCB in court by two of his English rebels - Greig and John Snow - a case which Packer won with the help of his lawyer Lord Alexander who argued that professional players cannot be stopped from earning their livelihood. Strong and bullish looking Packer stormed out of the meeting declaring ‘War’. The ICC stepped in to talk to Benaud and his rebel colleagues at Lord’s but the game’s world governing body was powerless to convince the ACB to concede to Packer’s request to hand over the rights to his TV channel. ![]() There was indeed upheaval all round amongst the cricket boards which started to ban their players for joining a private enterprise intruding their affairs. Greg Chappell was immediately stripped of Australian captaincy as was England skipper Greig by the then Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), now called ECB. Packer’s recruiting agents were no less figures than Ian Chappell, England captain Tony Greig, Pakistan’s Asif Iqbal, not to forget former Aussie skipper Richie Benaud. Top Pakistanis were not far behind as Mushtaq Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Majid Khan, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Haroon Rashid and Javed Miandad all said yes to the tycoon’s circus.Įven the South Africans, who desperately needed some exposure because of not being allowed to play international cricket since 1970 due to the apartheid, jumped the opportunity of some international cricket action. Unhappy over being underpaid by their own establishments, he signed most of the Australian players including the Chappell brothers Ian and Greg while Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee also signed, as did the ten West Indians led by Clive Lloyd the World Cup winning captain. What is your price?”įailing to break into it he rebelled to form the World Series Cricket (WSC) signing secretly world’s great players and teams. ![]() ![]() He had said to the ACB officials offering his bid: “There is a little bit of a gambler in all of us, gentlemen. Packer wanted to win the broadcasting rights for his channel from the then Australian Cricket Board (ACB) who were well pleased with their arrangements already with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Only a couple of years after the first competition a ‘cricket war’ broke out between the establishments and an Australian billionaire and media tycoon named Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, the owner in Australia of television Channel Nine and PBL Marketing. Joel Garner was unplayable in a spell of 5 for 4 in the final.įOR the present cricket-adoring youth it is imperative to know how the game changed from the first World Cup in 1975 to the second in 1979. ![]()
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