Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation. Born into a cricketing family—his grandfather and brother also captained Australia—Chappell made a hesitant start to international cricket playing as a right-hand middle-order batsman and spin bowler. He found his niche when promoted to bat at number three. Known as "Chappelli", he earned a reputation as one of the greatest captains the game has seen. Chappell's blunt verbal manner led to a series of confrontations with opposition players and cricket administrators; the issue of sledging first arose during his tenure as captain, and he was a driving force behind the professionalisation of Australian cricket in the 1970s.
World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established international cricket. World Series Cricket drastically changed the nature of cricket, and its influence continues to be felt today.
Gregory Stephen Chappell is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent Australian batsman of his time who allied elegant stroke making to fierce concentration. An exceptional all round player who bowled medium pace and, at his retirement, held the world record for the most catches in Test cricket, Chappell's career straddled two eras as the game moved toward a greater level of professionalism after the WSC schism.
Trevor Martin Chappell is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played 3 tests and 20 One Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shield with New South Wales twice, and scored a century for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup. His career was overshadowed, however, by an incident in 1981 in which he bowled an underarm delivery to New Zealand cricketer Brian McKechnie to stop the batsman from hitting a six.
Kepler Christoffel Wessels is a South African-Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained South Africa after playing 24 Tests for Australia. Since retiring he has been a lawn bowls competitor.
Raymond James Bright is a former Australian Test and One Day International cricketer from Victoria. He was a left arm spin bowler and lower order batsman who captained Victoria for a number of seasons. He was also an Australian vice-captain.
Bruce Malcolm Laird is a former Western Australian and Australian cricketer. He was an opening batsmen who played in 21 Test matches and 23 One Day Internationals. He also played 13 "Supertests" in World Series Cricket.
Michael Francis Malone is a former Australian cricketer who played in one Test match and ten One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1982. Malone played one Test prior to joining World Series Cricket. In English county cricket he had a period with Lancashire. He was also an Australian rules football full-forward and played in 104 WANFL games for Subiaco.
Ian Charles Davis is an Australian former cricketer (batsman) who played in 15 Test matches and three One Day Internationals between 1973 and 1977. Davis retired from first-class cricket in 1984 then worked for Dunlop Slazenger until his retirement in 2010.
Martin Francis Kent is a former Australian cricketer who played in three Test matches and five One Day Internationals in 1981.
This article is part of a series on the history of Australian cricket; it covers the period from the 1970–71 season until 1985. Notable Australian players during this period include brothers Ian and Greg Chappell, Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Doug Walters.
Douglas Sang Hue was a West Indian cricket umpire. He was of Chinese descent.
Every player to appear in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket is listed below along with their appearance records. Four teams would take part in the various WSC competitions, Australia XI, West Indies XI, World XI and Cavaliers XI.
The World Series Cricket Australia XI was a cricket team representing Australia in World Series Cricket (WSC). Their first game was against the WSC West Indies in 1977. World Series Cricket ended in 1979 after the Australian XI tour to the West Indies. The side was made up of current Australian international cricketers and some recently retired former Test players. The side was captained by Ian Chappell who had recently retired from first-class and international cricket, but returned to captain the side.
The World Series Cricket tour of the West Indies took place between February and April 1979. It was the second tour event of World Series Cricket after the World XI New Zealand tour earlier in the season. It was the first tour to feature the WSC West Indies and WSC Supertests. The five match Supertest series was drawn 1–1. It ran in parallel with the ODI series which the West Indies won easily, 8–2.
The World Series Cricket Cavaliers XI was a cricket team formed to play in World Series Cricket. Taking the International Cavaliers as its inspiration, the team was envisaged as a way of giving those players under contract to the WSC organisation, but not picked regularly for one of the three main teams regular match play and opportunities to win prize money. The team was formed in 1978, before the start of the second season of World Series Cricket, with a tour of Australia scheduled to take place at the same time as the main competition. This would see the Cavaliers play each of the other three WSC teams at a range of smaller venues around Australia between November 1978 and February 1979.
In late 1977, the new World Series Cricket competition began in Australia between three teams playing both multi-day and one day games. The first set of these fixtures to be played was a three match series between the Australian team and the West Indies team, starting at the beginning of December.
