The Man Who Coloured Cricket

When Kerry Packer appeared on the cricket scene in the late seventies he revolutionised the game. Today’s followers are used to coloured clothing and all the other razzmatazz that is now a part of cricket, but back in 1977 Packer’s intervention was divisive and nearly broke the game completely. Players were ostracised by their nations and for a while it looked as if cricket might not survive. Henry Blofeld observed the goings on from his position as both a cricket commentator and writer. In 1978 he compiled a detailed account of the events that unfolded, aided by his interviews with Packer, as well as the deposed English captain Tony Grieg. He witnessed at first hand the Packer Tests in Australia, The Australia-India Test series, MCC play Pakistan and New Zealand, and finally the young Australian side that took on the ‘Packer-filled’ West Indies. In a mere seven-week period he witnessed all the then six Test-playing nations playing Test cricket. The first time that had been possible. The Man Who Coloured Cricket is Henry Blofeld’s detailed document that also shows concern for the human dimensions of the controversy. The varied reaction of the English county players; overseas players; the legal tussles; the complex and surprising character of Packer himself, and the establishment figures with whom he did battle, are strands of the story expertly woven together to make The Man Who Coloured Cricket a dramatic and moving story.