MELBOURNE, Nov 28: Former Australian cricketers gathered here on Friday to remember World Series Cricket (WSC) — the breakaway group that tore the game apart more than two decades ago.

Stars once despised by the game’s establishment for quitting their national teams came together to mark the WSC days between 1977 and 1979, when many big names left the traditional structure to sign up for big cheques with the “circus” bankrolled by wealthy Australian Kerry Packer.

Australians Dennis Lillee, David Hookes, Ray Bright and Ian Redpath, England’s Tony Greig and ex-umpire Jack Collins were special guests at a Cricket Victoria lunch to revisit the WSC era.

By coincidence, they met a couple of hours after Ricky Ponting was anointed a few kilometres away as Australian Test captain-elect to replace the retiring Steve Waugh.

The first WSC ‘Supertest’ — as the Packer internationals were known — was played 26 years ago at a now-demolished venue outside Melbourne known then as VFL Park.

The breakaway competition lasted until peace was made with the traditional custodians of the sport in 1979.

It introduced coloured clothing, popularised one-day cricket and dramatically improved television coverage of the game.

But the most important thing for Greig, so-called World XI captain during the rebel years, was that WSC “gave me security”.

Greig is now a well-known television commentator.

Players had previously been paid poorly by international sporting standards.—AFP