The 1970s were the decade in which cricket was transformed.1971 saw the first one-day international being played between England and Australia in Melbourne.
In 1977 the game was changed forever by an Australian television tycoon, Kerry Packer. He saw cricket as a money-making televised sport.
He signed up 51 of the world’s leading cricketers and for almost two years staged unofficial tests and One-day Internationals under the name of World Series Cricket.
Packer drove home the point that cricket was a marketable game which could generate huge revenue. Continuous television coverage made cricketers celebrities.
Television coverage also expanded the audience and children became cricket fans.
Multinational companies created a global market for cricket. This has shifted the balance of power in cricket.
India has the largest viewership for the game and hence the game’s centre of gravity shifted to South Asia.
This shift was symbolised by the shifting of the ICC headquarters from London to tax-free Dubai.
The innovations in cricket have come from the practice of sub-continental teams in countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — doosra and the reverse swing are Pakistani innovations.
