I think you're right. And it very nearly didn't work - it must have been incredibly nerve-wracking for everyone involved who really put their careers and their futures on the line, including Ian Chappell, Richie Benaud and in particular Tony Greig. Had any of them, including Packer himself, walked away when things got tough, history might have been very different. Thanks for commenting.
Nah it makes cricket terrible perhaps start of it....,,,,It also took away good 3 years of prime of Viv Richards, Greg Chappell, Andy Roberts, Greenidge too..
@@kunalsingh3121 It wasn't always easy for the players left behind in the official teams either, particularly in Australia where there were essentially two national teams for a couple of years, and some of the younger players were put in situations way too early and well beyond their experience. There were certainly some down sides as well.
You actually have no idea......Imagine being one of the best cricketers in the world living on fish & chip money. . WSC dragged cricket into the 21st century and afforded the players income to stay in the game. Not to mention the standard was top shelf, ten times better than what the establishment could offer...Do your research
@@al6054 It's interesting to look at just how modest the initial requests were when the Chappells made approaches to Bradman and the Australian Cricket Board, about remuneration and also making some financial provision for players at the end of their careers, and all were rebuffed without any consideration. County players in the UK found themselves on the dole in the off season, you're right about fish and chip money. It's hard to imagine anyone else other than Packer actually holding their nerve against huge initial losses and court proceedings that could have gone either way, to make WSC the landmark that it was. Funnily enough, a few years later the ACB seemed to have no trouble finding buckets of cash to pay bonuses to players to withdraw from the rebel tour to Apartheid South Africa and stay with the national side, a fact that quite rightly annoyed those who never had any intention of going in the first place.
Ian Chappell has spent the last 40+ years heaping blame on Bradman for WSC because he hated the Don due to a feud that began with his grandfather Vic Richardson in the 1930s. Fact is, cricket was like other sports in that era with a small professional element mixed with mostly amateur players. The administrators were living hand-to-mouth according to the success (or otherwise) of international tours, which had to support a domestic infrastructure. The administration of the game was arcane, no doubt. They didn't understand the importance of tv broadcasts & corporate sponsorship. The ACB couldn't contract players as they weren't an incorporated body, they mostly acted as a financial clearing house for the proceeds of the test matches, giving the $ to the state associations that operated the grassroots & first-class matches. When it came time for the rapprochement, it was Bradman who Packer dealt with personally. Bradman realized that change had now come & was prosaic in dealing with Packer & his lieutenants, which didn't include Chappell.
@@GeorgeFairbrother No worries. WSC was a nuanced situation & the history is usually told by the winners (ie, WSC people). But for all of his apparent benevolence toward the players, Packer had interest only in the tv rights, he didn't want to run the game. It split Aus cricket for a decade & resulted in some incredibly poor performances. The players got a better deal initially but the price paid was playing a lot of ODI cricket which many of them disliked. Then old problems emerged, the pay remained stagnant for most of the '80s, the rebels could make more in RSA. That was years after Bradman retired from administration.
@@sentimentalbloke185 Excellent points, particularly about history being written by the winners (including Channel Nine). I've probably been guilty myself of looking at WSC with a little too much happy nostalgia and not enough balance. It's been interesting listening to the opinions of players like Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop who ultimately had a very tough time trying to hold an inexperienced national team together in tough and dangerous circumstances. I don't think the reuniting of the teams was one hundred percent smooth either, which is understandable but I think has been largely glossed over. One thing that has stuck in my mind since, is Kim Hughes saying that when he was ultimately made captain, and Rod Marsh (who was my favourite cricketer growing up), and Dennis Lillee weren't best pleased, Dennis Lillee would target Hughes in the nets with repeated bouncers to unsettle him during warmups. Rod Marsh later said that they were all good mates off the field, but occasionally disagreed on the field. Not quite sure what to make of all that. All part of the history I suppose, thanks again, it's great to have this additional context with the video.
@@GeorgeFairbrother With Hughes, it went deeper than that. In 1977, he was the new boy coming into the team & wasn't as deferential as he was expected to be. He told the media that he'd knocked back a WSC offer to remain loyal which annoyed the WSC guys as they denied he was approached. After WSC, the WACA backed Hughes to be WA (& later Aus) captain which put Marsh's nose out of joint. Hughes never backed down to them (or Ian Chappell, who picked the WSC signings & claimed Hughes wasn't on the list) so the situation remained unresolved until Lillee & Marsh retired. By then the well had been so poisoned that Hughes's captaincy was destabilized & he ended up quitting. Then the rebel tour happened because there were so many disgruntled Aus players who weren't happy about a lot of things, including money. So, no, WSC didn't solve a lot of the problems instantaneously as WSC people make out. Ultimately, Packer won the war by sending the ACB broke (not hard to do as they didn't have that much) which forced them into a one-sided negotiation for a ridiculously long contract of 10 years. Packer sucked a lot of $$ out of cricket via PBL Marketing & made sure the players' wages & the price of tv rights didn't grow by much. The situation only improved when Packer sold Ch 9 to Alan Bond in 1987. It wasn't until the ACB ditched PBL in 1994 that the Aus players became full-time professionals.
@@sentimentalbloke185 With all this in mind I'm going to be interested to go back and have a look at the full series again and see how I feel about it. From memory, one person who really was impressive in terms of his commentary, around the South Africa rebels in particular, was Allan Border.
Great man Kerry Packer and despite being arguably the best test player in history Bradman was arguably the worst administrator in the history of the game.
Very fair point. Had Bradman been receptive to some of the early quite modest requests from the players history might have been very different. Thank you for commenting.
That's a great point, I wonder if it was something as simple as timing, which players were in reach of the recruiters, but I don't know. Hopefully someone might be able to answer that one for us.
Packer focused initially on signing Aus players, then switched to overseas players for a Rest of the World team comprised of men who were playing in the English County championship, that was Tony Greig's job to use his contacts. So many West Indians were keen to sign that they ended up getting a whole team of them. There were very few Indians playing in England at the time & they had no profile in Australia as they hadn't toured Aus for 10 years, didn't have box office players like Clive Lloyd, Imran, Proctor, Barry & Vic Richards etc. However, WSC kept signing players throughout its existence as a proviso if the series went beyond the initial 2 years & they 'optioned' certain players which was kept secret. It's believed that 6 Indians were optioned after their 77-78 tour, Gavaskar being one & IIRC, Bedi another. But that's something Indians don't want to discuss & the Packer people involved have always kept the commercial-in-confidence out of the public domain.
