“WSC, coincidences and synchronicity in West Indies v Australia Test Series!”

Nov 29, 2015 Sports

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By Colin Croft
“Coincidences never happen.  They are God’s plans that us humans know nothing about!”  Thus spoke the old sage.  But if coincidences do not actually occur, then surely synchronicity, that element of several related important things happening exactly at the same time, must be real!
Great timing allows West Indies to be now touring Australia, for three Tests, at the same instant when Cricket Australia (CA); eventually International Cricket Council will also concur; finally plans to honour and recognise records of 1970’s era Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (WSC).
Influenced by WSC’s initial use of a ball coloured in a hue other than red – white, in that original case – pink balls are being used for the very first time in an official day-night Test, featuring Australia and New Zealand.  One might come to the conclusion that massive coincidences do actually happen, but maybe God planned this too for our great game!
What is amazing is that it took nearly 40 years after WSC’s life; 1977-1979; for cricket’s authorities to recognize how very useful all innovations from that period have really been.  All have played regularly in coloured clothing and with white balls in shorter formats of the game, as “invented” by WSC, but until now, Tests were on hallowed ground.  Nothing is new anymore!
Considering that ICC, CA’s forerunner Australian Cricket Board, Kerry Packer and Marylebone Cricket Club – MCC – were at such serious, cantankerous loggerheads that they eventually ended up in court for WSC to even begin in 1977/78, Packer must be laughing very loudly up there!
One senior international cricketer made everyone laugh last week too by suggesting:  “Maybe many cricket authorities and players nowadays either cannot read or do not understand anything that they do read, for a day-night Test cricket game in 2015 is not at all innovative.  It was already done in 1977 by WSC.  The only thing was that it was not officially recognized then!”
What about those drop-in pitches that everyone were enthused about earlier this month when the All-Stars, captained by Australian Shane Warne and India Sachin Tendulkar, played?  Well, that innovation was also firstly present in WSC’s inaugural season 1977/78.  By the time I signed in 1978/79, WSC had become so powerful that we played at recognised Test arenas in Australia.
But, those series were very tiring, as they were proper Tests, in name and nature, against the best that Australia and ‘Rest of the World’ could conjure up.  How some of us survived unscathed physically, and how West Indies managed to win everything, even with the style, class and talent that our team possessed, is still a major miracle.  We had to win, kitted out in that shocking pink for WSC’s ODI’s!
On WSC’s tour of the Caribbean 1979, five five-day Tests, without rest days, and twelve ODI’s were played between WSC Australia and WSC West Indies, from 23 February to 10 April 1979.
Can you imagine today’s prima-donna cricketers playing that much; thirty-seven days of hard cricket in six weeks?  Or even playing sixteen ODI’s in WSC International Cup, in Australia, in two months between November 28, 1978 and January 30, 1979, with tremendous cross-country travel included?  Not nowadays they won’t!
But there is a caveat for this CA recognition of WSC’s feats.  Unfortunately, even though they were tough, hard-fought Tests, easily the hardest set of games that I have ever played in, wickets and runs thusly gleaned will only count as First Class elements, and not for official Tests.
So, while my original 125 Test wickets will remain, from 27 official Tests, with no addition of wickets from seven Super Tests played.  Per CA’s proposal, the additional thirty wickets that I had in those seven additional games will bump up my First-Class wicket aggregate to 458 wickets from 128 First Class games.  Hey, not so bad, eh, but you have to be grateful for small mercies!
Coming back to WI in Australia 2015, what can we expect?  After all, Australia have also lost many of their stalwarts, but, judging from WI’s recent, debilitating exploits in Sri Lanka, who, coincidentally were also rebuilding, WI could be looking at a severe hiding in kookaburra country.
Yet, WI could surprise us.  After all, by laws of averages, no team can be that poor in Sri Lanka and not improve, so one has to hope that that improvement is very imminent.  Remember, WI’s selectors, under Clive Lloyd’s leadership, could not find anything wrong with the team’s performance in Sri Lanka, for no-one, absolutely no-one, was dropped for Australia
WI may not win a Test, but I also believe that Jason Holder’s men will hold their own relatively creditably, probably losing 2-0, but if they could win any of the three Tests at Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney, then another miracle would have occurred amid shouts of another resurgence!
Meantime, those pink balls used by Australia and New Zealand this weekend remind of WSC WI garb in 1978/79.  Where they got that color back then for our clothing is anyone’s guess, but at least, in 2015, the colour has been severely tested for the night; day/night Tests, that is!  Enjoy!

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