From the Archives, 1979: Packer emerges as cricket's king - 29th May 2019

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Kerry Packer, with his children James and Gretel Packer. CREDIT: TREVOR DALLEN

By Mike Sheahan

First published in The Age on May 31, 1979

Packer emerges cricket’s king

The Australian Cricket Board and the Kerry Packer Empire have joined forces in control of the game in Australia for at least the next 10 years.

The ACB and Mr. Packers PBL Sports Pty. Ltd. yesterday officially completed the agreement which ends cricket’s bitter administrative division of the past two years.

In an official board statement released in Melbourne yesterday, ACB chairman Bob Parish said: “The board has granted PBL Sports Pty. Ltd. the exclusive right, for a term of 10 years, to promote the programme of cricket organized by the board and to arrange the televising and merchandising in respect of the programme.”

Mr. Packer’s Channel 9 network has already secured the rights to first-class cricket in Australia for the next three years, and will just as certainly retain the for the following seven years.

PBL Sports is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd., a member of the Packer Consolidated Press Group.

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(The Age)