22 Aug Come On Kerry Packer Come On Come On
So over 2 million Australians watched the tale of World Series Cricket & Kerry Packer last weekend. As a teenager at the time I remember my viewing of sporting events changing dramatically.
It seems funny today with digital TV, broadband, 3D, etc. but back in the mid 1970′s they shot cricket with the camera at only 1 end & if you were lucky you had a mate who had a colour TV, instead of viewing it in black & white.
World Series Cricket changed all of that. The catchy jingle, multiple camera angles, coloured clothing, day/night matches, drop in pitches – players that I had never heard or seen before. My friends & I would play backyard cricket matches & copy Imran Khan, Mike Proctor, Garth Le Roux & other players that were new to us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL6mWgioXyA
My friends & I went to one of the first SuperTests at Footy Park. When Dennis Amiss came out wearing his crash helmet he got the right royal treatment from the crowd (well us over-enthusiastic 14 year olds) & after he had made a duck a further serenading on the way back – you could virtually count the crowd it was that sparse so the problem was that if he jumped the fence there was nowhere for us to hide.
The next time we went back to Footy Park for a 1 day game against the Windies the crowd was however enormous. The Windies won the game in the last over, but I saw my first & only live hat trick from Gary Gilmour
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ef9jAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UOcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6106%2C1506848
Who remembers Hooksey pasting the Windies all over the Sydney Showgrounds until he got this nasty bouncer from Andy Roberts, or Tony Greig being the 1st person to get hit in the helmet by Dennis Lillee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGdsLXheij0
Or Wayne Daniel hitting a six off the 2nd last ball to win a classic 1 day match at VFL Park. Legend has it that he hit it so far they never found the ball – we will never know as the crowd came streaming onto the ground & the Windies celebrated like no tomorrow in their box after the game (PS – check out the mystery blonde racing out of their box straight after the game – apparently there is a story there to be told)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9KYaFUZr00
So well done Chappelli, Austin Robertson, Strop, Dennis Lille et all for bringing us the ground breaking revolution for the magic game. And au reviour to Kerry Packer who always got the last word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=EVIOmU3l0Zo