''Howzat! Kerry Packer's War'' is an Australian drama-miniseries set in the 1970s that premiered on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

on Sunday 19 August 2012.

Plot

The Ashes is the pinnacle of world cricket with two old enemies, Australia and England, going head to head. This series is the story of

World Series Cricket 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 establishe ...

and its creator, Australian media mogul

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

, who signed up the world's greatest players and set up a parallel cricket competition. The Australian cricket team, visiting England in 1977 for the Ashes series, fields a team full of legends. Cricket is undergoing a revolution and the cricket establishment will be brought to its knees.

Cast

Richard Davies, Lachy Hulme, Alexander England and Damon Gameau 2012

Lachy Hulme Lachy Hulme (born 1 April 1971) is an Australian actor and screenwriter. He has written several films and has appeared in a number of successful Australian and US film and television productions. Early life Hulme was born in Melbourne, Victori ...

as media mogul

Travis McMahon Travis may refer to: People and fictional characters *Travis (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Travis (surname), a list of people Places in the United States *Travis, Staten Island, a neighborhood *Travis Air Force Base, a ...

as comedian

Paul Hogan Paul Hogan (born 8 October 1939) is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as ...

Abe Forsythe Abraham Forsythe (born 26 July 1981) is an Australian film and television actor, director, writer and producer. He is the son of actor and comedian Drew Forsythe. Career He first appeared on the TV series ''The Miraculous Mellops (TV series), Th ...

as comedian

John Cornell John Cornell (2 March 1941 – 23 July 2021) was an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, and businessman. He was best known for his role as "Strop" on ''The Paul Hogan Show'', and he was instrumental in the introduction of World Serie ...

(known also as 'strop'). *

Cariba Heine Cariba Heine (born 1 October 1988) is a South African-born Australian actress and dancer. She is known for her roles as Rikki Chadwick in the Network Ten show '' H2O: Just Add Water'', Bridget Sanchez in the third series of '' Blue Water High'', ...

as an actress (and wife of John Cornell)

Delvene Delaney Delvene Delaney (born 26 August 1951) is an Australian actress of soap opera and film, television presenter and singer. Career Delaney was born in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, on 26 August 1951, the beauty pageant winner found fame on Austra ...

. *

Peter Houghton Peter Houghton (20 August 1938 – 25 November 2007) was the longest surviving artificial heart transplant patient in the UK. Houghton was implanted with a Jarvik 2000 heart pump at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England, by professor Steph ...

as former Australian cricket captain (and also an adviser to Kerry Packer),

Richie Benaud Richard Benaud (; 6 October 1930 – 10 April 2015) was an Australian cricketer who, after his retirement from international cricket in 1964, became a highly regarded commentator on the game. Benaud was a Test cricket all-rounder, blending l ...

. *

Clayton Watson Clayton Watson (born 23 March 1977) is an Australian producer, actor, writer, and director. He grew up in the Australian outback on a sheep station close to Morgan, a small town in South Australia. He is best known for his breakthrough role as Ki ...

as Australia XI captain

Ian Chappell Ian Michael Chappell (born 26 September 1943) 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 ...

Damon Gameau Damon Gameau is an Australian actor, director, and producer, known for his documentaries ''That Sugar Film'' and ''2040''. Gameau has also appeared in a number of award-winning TV shows and films, such as ''Love My Way'', '' The Tracker'' and ...

as Australia XI batsman

Greg Chappell Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) 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-eminen ...

. *

Matthew Le Nevez Matthew Le Nevez (born 10 January 1979) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Doctor Patrick Reid in the TV series ''Offspring'', Detective Brian Dutch in the Tasmanian Gothic sci-fi television show '' The Kettering Incident' ...

as Australia XI fast bowler

Dennis Lillee Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is Australian retired cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation".

. *

Ryan O'Kane Ryan O'Kane is a New Zealand actor. His roles include Rhys Levitt in the Australian police drama ''City Homicide'', Prince Frederik in the telemovie '' Mary: The Making of a Princess'', and Riley Hawkins in ''Home and Away''. In 2018 and 2019 ...

as Australia XIfast bowler

Jeff Thomson Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth ...

. *

Brendan Cowell Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor, playwright, and director. Early life and education Cowell was born in Sydney and grew up in the beachside suburb of Cronulla. He credits his mother and high school drama teacher with encouraging him to e ...

as Australia XI wicket-keeper

Rod Marsh Rodney William Marsh (4 November 1947 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian professional cricketer who played as a wicketkeeper for the Australian national team. Marsh had a Test career spanning from the 1970–71 to the 1983–84 Australian ...

. * Richard Davies as Australia XI Batsman

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) grew up in Torrensville and was a South Australian and Australian cricketer, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in ...

. * Nicholas Coghlan as journalist

Austin Robertson Jr. Austin Christopher Robertson (born 29 April 1943) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). He is the son of former South Me ...

Alexander England Alexander England is an Australian actor. He comes from Albury in New South Wales, where he attended Scots School Albury. England starred opposite Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad in the 2019 zombie comedy horror film '' Little Monsters''. Career ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and Rest Of The World XI captain

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born Test cricket captain turned commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish parentage. He was a tall () all-rounder w ...

. * Andrew Carbone as Australia XI fast bowler

Max Walker Maxwell Henry Norman Walker (12 September 1948 – 28 September 2016) was an Australian sportsman who played both cricket and Australian rules football at high levels. After six years of balancing first-class cricket in summer, professional f ...

. * Russell Newman as

Harry Chester Harry Chester (1 October 1806 – 5 October 1868) was a British civil servant who spent most of his career in the Privy Council Office. He published one book, ''The Lay of the Lady Ellen, a tale of 1834'', and is best remembered as the founder of ...

. *

Tony Briggs Tony Briggs (born 3 July 1967) is an Australian actor, writer and producer. He is a former track and field athlete. He is best known for creating the stage play '' The Sapphires'' (later a 2012 film) telling the true story of an Aboriginal s ...

as West Indies XI captain

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese-British former cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in Georgetown. At the age of 14 he was captain of his school cricket team ...

. * Daniel Worrall as Australia XI bowler Mick Malone. * Craig Hall as Gavin Warner (fictional character) * Mandy McElhinney as Kerry Packer's personal assistant, Rose (fictional character)

Ratings

Accolades

Book

''Howzat! Kerry Packer's War'', is also a book by Christopher Lee, who wrote the screenplay of the TV series. It was first published in 2012 by New South Publishing, an imprint of

The University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight (Australian universities), ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Nine Network original programming 2010s Australian television miniseries Television series by Endemol Australia Television series by Endemol Fiction set in the 1970s Cricket on television 2012 Australian television series debuts 2012 Australian television series endings