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Sporting Witness: Kerry Packer's Cricket Revolution

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Kerry Packer's Cricket Revolution

06/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Sporting Witness, Kerry Packer's Cricket Revolution

How the Australian tycoon brought big money, and controversy, into the sport in 1977.

How the Australian tycoon brought big money, and controversy, into the sport in 1977 with his World Series Cricket.

It is forty years since the international cricket world was thrown into chaos when an Australian media tycoon called Kerry Packer set up his own super league for the world’s best players. In 1977, he brought a brash new form of the game to television, featuring one day matches played under floodlights with white balls, and the players wearing coloured team strips rather than the traditional white clothing. Tayo Popoola hears the memories of Jeff Thomson of Australia, and Clive Lloyd of the West Indies, two of the players who signed for Packer, and risked never playing again for their country again. The programme is a Whistledown Production.

PHOTO: Kerry Packer fielding questions in 1977 (Getty Images)

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