Changing face of limited overs game

In response, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) persuaded 41-year-old Bobby Simpson to come out of retirement and lead a raw, untried national side against India.

A generation later, with the Packer years now a distant memory, both men can claim an honourable part in Australia’s evolution into the world’s best one-day side. The defending champions play in their third successive World Cup final at The Wanderers on Sunday.

World Series Cricket lasted just two seasons before Packer made his peace with the ACB in return for the television rights to traditional Test cricket he had been seeking all along. But in that time it changed the face of the one-day game forever. To the ACB’s immense relief, the Australia-India series proved a thriller, with Simpson playing his full part by scoring two centuries against the skillful Indian spinners.

World Series one-day cricket was another matter. The game effectively took its modern shape with day-night matches, white balls, coloured clothing, fielding restrictions and innovative television coverage. The crowds responded, pouring in to the Sydney Cricket Ground after sunset to watch the exotic new form of the national summer sport and singing along to the World Series jingle ‘‘C’mon Aussie, C’mon.’’

As part of the truce between Packer and the ACB, an annual tri-series was introduced in Australia with the West Indies, world champions in 1975 and again four years, making regular visits.

Australia, with Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh in their side, were a major force. Their simultaneous retirement at the end of the 1983-4 series with Pakistan and the defection of several other leading players to unofficial tours to white-ruled South Africa plunged Australian cricket into one of its greatest crises.

The ACB turned once more to Simpson, this time as coach. Simpson, who firmly believes cricket is essentially a simple game, concentrated first on the 1987 World Cup. Meticulous preparation, excellent team spirit and a new generation of committed players, including a future captain in the young Steve Waugh, took Australia to victory over England in the final.

Apart from a blip at the 1992 World Cup, Australia have been at the forefront of the one-day game since. Under Taylor, Australia lost the 1996 World Cup final to Sri Lanka, under Waugh they beat Pakistan three years later.

Now, with Ricky Ponting in charge, they bid on Sunday to become the first country to win the one-day game’s ultimate trophy for a record third time. (Reuters)