Genl0250 Research Essay
Q. Assess the 1970’s World Series Cricket Revolution on the game in the Australia.
Cricket in Australia underwent a transformation throughout the 1970s as the cricket revolution affected all aspects of the game including salaries of players, broadcasting agreements, sponsorship deals and PBL marketing ventures. The whole persona of the game changed domestically through agreements and conflict in altering the sport as a whole: The winds of change were about to sweep the noble game of cricket from its gentile 19th century origins into the modern commercial realities of the 20th century.
The World Series of Cricket (WSC) epitomised this revolution, proving a permanent change in the ways in which the game of cricket in Australia was watched, played and perceived by the wider community. Empowering cricketers was at the forefront of the consequences of this watershed event, as well as financial reward for broadcasting authorities and administrators involved in the game. Australian cricket has been reshaped by the events of the WSC and has changed the face of the game in the modern era.
World Series Cricket began in May 1977 when Kerry Packer, one of Australia’s most successful media moguls, formed a breakaway cricket competition for his own network, Channel Nine. Packer had arranged the signing of over a dozen elite cricket players from around the world to initiate a rival competition during the Australian season of 1977-78. This was a direct response to a refusal by the Australian Cricket Board to grant television rights to Packer’s network and rather favored an agreement with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Although highly secretive for much of the recruitment process, news finally broke of Packer’s ambitious plan on the eve of the Ashes series on May 9, 1977. Packer contracted some 35 leading Test cricketers, over half being Australian at relatively high salaries during 1977 to play in his competition that benefited his Channel Nine network.
Cricket in Australia underwent a transformation throughout the 1970s as the cricket revolution affected all aspects of the game including salaries of players, broadcasting agreements, sponsorship deals and PBL marketing ventures. The whole persona of the game changed domestically through agreements and conflict in altering the sport as a whole: The winds of change were about to sweep the noble game of cricket from its gentile 19th century origins into the modern commercial realities of the 20th century.
The World Series of Cricket (WSC) epitomised this revolution, proving a permanent change in the ways in which the game of cricket in Australia was watched, played and perceived by the wider community. Empowering cricketers was at the forefront of the consequences of this watershed event, as well as financial reward for broadcasting authorities and administrators involved in the game. Australian cricket has been reshaped by the events of the WSC and has changed the face of the game in the modern era.
World Series Cricket began in May 1977 when Kerry Packer, one of Australia’s most successful media moguls, formed a breakaway cricket competition for his own network, Channel Nine. Packer had arranged the signing of over a dozen elite cricket players from around the world to initiate a rival competition during the Australian season of 1977-78. This was a direct response to a refusal by the Australian Cricket Board to grant television rights to Packer’s network and rather favored an agreement with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Although highly secretive for much of the recruitment process, news finally broke of Packer’s ambitious plan on the eve of the Ashes series on May 9, 1977. Packer contracted some 35 leading Test cricketers, over half being Australian at relatively high salaries during 1977 to play in his competition that benefited his Channel Nine network.