Night games, the white ball and coloured clothing were all introduced 40 years ago this summer, as World Series Cricket changed the game forever.
If you were a kid growing up in Australia in the late 1970s, WSC made cricket the coolest sport around.
The rebel competition only lasted two years, but it attracted most of the world’s best players at the time and provided so many great memories. Here are some of mine.
Sitting on the dog track at the Gabba
The Gabba used to have a grass dog track surrounding the field and one-day WSC games were so popular that they let people sit on the track to fit as many as possible into the ground.
Sitting there, you were close enough to get an autograph of the great Dennis Lillee when he was at fine leg.
Seeing the start of a West Indies dynasty
The young West Indies were thumped 5-1 when they came to Australia for a 1975-76 Test series. Two years later, they emerged as a new powerhouse, with players like Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Michael Holding leading the way.
They dominated world cricket for the next 15 years.
David Hookes getting his jaw broken
The comp started in the pre-helmet era, and David Hookes had his jaw broken trying to hook a bouncer by Andy Roberts in a ‘Supertest’ at the Sydney Showground.
That quickly led to the development of the first crudely-made batting helmets, which looked more like they should have been worn by motorbike riders.
The chance to see the great South Africans of the era
Without WSC, Australian fans would never have seen South African greats like Barry Richards, Mike Proctor and Clive Rice play live. They were denied their chance to shine for most of their careers because of the international sporting boycott of South Africa during the Apartheid era.
Richie and Bill
This is when we first became familiar with the commentary and quirks of Richie Benaud and Bill Lawry. Tony Greig, Ian Chappell and Max Walker were still on the field back then.
The song
WSC used a catchy song to market the Australian team, I can still remember all the lyrics. It briefly topped the local charts at the time.
The Big Mac recipe
To get a free autographed poster of the teams, you had to recite the ingredients of a Big Mac at a McDonald’s counter within ten seconds. McDonald’s were still relatively new to Australia in the ’70s.
For some reason, I can still remember all those ingredients 40 years later, even though I don’t eat Big Macs (for the record, it was “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun”).
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