World Series Cricket results are the results of the main games played in the now defunct World Series Cricket (WSC) competition. World Series Cricket was a break away professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

competition staged between 1977 and 1979, organized by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, the Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established

international cricket International cricket matches are played between teams representing their nations, normally organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The main forms are Test matches, One-Day matches and Twenty20 matches. Most games are played ...

. World Series Cricket drastically changed the nature of cricket, and its influence continues to be felt today.The intention for creating World Series Cricket is not to offer the media and broadcasting rights by the Australian cricket board to him and after few years when board agreed to give broadcast rights to kerry packers then he no more interested to run the world series cricket and this ho
IPL started in India
with the same thought and mindset. WSC involved a three-way competition between the WSC Australia XI, WSC West Indies XI, and WSC World XI, a team composed of players from the other cricketing nations, although a number of West Indian players also played in the World team when they were not playing for the West Indies. Towards the end of the competition a fourth team named the Cavaliers was added for the Country Cavaliers Tour. It was composed of players not selected by the other three sides for that rounds' fixtures; this was a way of making better use of all the players contracted to the competition.

Origin

The series originated due to two main factors—the widespread view that players were not paid sufficient amounts to make a living from cricket, and that Packer wished to secure the exclusive broadcasting rights to Australian cricket, then held by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

. After the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) refused to accept Channel Nine's bid to gain exclusive television rights to Australia's Test matches in 1976, Packer set up his own series by secretly signing agreements with leading players from the national cricket teams of Australia,

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 ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. Official cricket won a series of minor victories. WSC was unable to call the Australian team "Australia", or use the official rules of cricket, which are

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of the MCC.Marylebone Cricket Club
Accessed 29 July 2007. The Australian team therefore became "WSC Australia XI", and former Australian captain and leading commentator

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 ...

took the job of writing rules and playing conditions for the series. WSC was also shut out of traditional cricket venues, so Packer leased two Australian football stadiums,

VFL Park Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football Le ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and

Football Park Football Park, known commercially as AAMI Stadium, was an Australian rules football stadium located in West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1973 by the South Australian Na ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, a trotting track in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Gloucester Park, and the Sydney Showground.

1977–78

Another of the victories of official cricket was to ban WSC from using the term "

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

". The five-day matches were therefore retitled "Supertests" in WSC.

Supertests

The Supertests for the 1977–78 season were five-day matches. Two separate series were played, WSC West Indies XI vs WSC Australia XI, and World XI vs WSC Australia XI.

WSC West Indies XI vs WSC Australia XI

---- ---- WSC West Indies XI won the series 2–1.

WSC World XI vs WSC Australia XI

---- ---- WSC World XI won the series 2–1. ----

International Cup

The International Cup consisted of one-day limited overs matches, with both sides allocated forty overs of eight balls each. Two points were awarded for a win, one for a no result or abandonment. If points were level, combined run rate would determine position. The two top two sides contested the first semi-final. The winner of that match progressed to the final, while the loser played the bottom side in the second semi-final for the other place in the final. The final was a one-off winner-takes-all match. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 1st Semi-Final 2nd Semi-Final Final

1978–79

Supertests

For the 1978–79 season the Supertest format was changed to a round-robin format, with the top team going to the final, and the other two teams playing-off in a semi-final. The Supertests were also changed from the traditional five-day Test match format to four-day day–night matches. ---- ---- By winning both matches the WSC World XI qualified for the final. A semi-final between WSC Australia and WSC West Indies determined the other finalist. Semi-Final Final

International Cup

For the 1978–79 season the

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

International Cup saw both sides allocated fifty overs of six balls each. Two points were assigned for a win, one for a no result. If teams were level on points, combined run-rate would be used to separate them. The top two teams would contest a best-of-four final series. A crowd of 44,377 attended the first match of the 1978–79 International Cup, under the new floodlights at the SCG.Ian Chappell & Ashley Mallett (2005) ''Hitting Out: The Ian Chappell Story'', Orion Books, London ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Finals ---- ---- ---- WSC West Indies XI won the finals 3–1.

1979 tour to the West Indies

In 1979, following the tour of New Zealand, the WSC Australians team set off for a more extensive tour to the Caribbean that would encompass five Supertest games and twelve one-day games against the WSC West Indies.

Supertests

For this series the Supertests reverted to a traditional five-day format. ---- ---- ---- ---- Drawn series 1–1.

References

{{portal, Cricket World Series Cricket