In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, the first of two parts, Roger Seymour looks at the preamble to the 1979 World Series Cricket season in the Caribbean
Origin of WSC
In May 1977, World Series Cricket burst onto the international arena like a tsunami approaching the shallow waters of the coast. (In Search of West Indies Cricket, SN, The Packer Revolution, February, 6th, 2016; The Game Changer, February 21st, 2016; Floodlights, helmets and pyjama cricket, 28th February, 2016). As a tsunami travels from the deep water of the open ocean its speed diminishes, but its energy flux, which is dependent on both wave speed and wave height, remains constant. As a tsunami slows, its height increases, an effect referred to as shoaling. Thus, unnoticeable at sea, a tsunami roars into landfall as a menacing gargantuan force. And so it was with Packer’s circus, as the English media referred to WSC in its initial phases.
