Australian Cricket Team In England In 1977
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1977 season to play a five Test matches for the 1977 Ashes series against England. The Australians also played 3 one day internationals and 19 other tour matches.
The Australian side had been quite strong in the early 1970s and had won the previous two Ashes series, 1974-75 at home and 1975 in England. Although it was not a contest for The Ashes, Australia and England had also played in the Centenary Test from 15 to 19 March 1977 to mark the 100th anniversary of the first ever test match. Remarkably Australia won by exactly the same margin of 45 runs. However the tourists, led by new captain Greg Chappell, were rocked prior to the start of the 1977 Ashes series by the conflict between the Australian Cricket Board and Kerry Packer's Nine Network that emerged following the Centenary Test regarding the rights to television broadcasts of cricket in Australia. Packer wanted to transfer the rights to televised cricket from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) who had held the rights since 1956, to his own Nine Network and was prepared to pay a much larger amount than the ABC was. Despite this, the Australian Cricket Board refused, and Packer set about creating a rebel World Series Cricket league, successfully recruiting many star international players in the process.
Consequently, the Australian Cricket Board refused to select players who had signed up with the rebel league, and as many of the Australian test side had joined, the Australian side was left without most of its star players for the tour. Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson had originally signed up for World Series Cricket, but an existing media contract prevented him from joining, and so he remained free to lead the Australian bowling attack. Eventually all but two of the squad would take part in WSC, the exceptions being Kim Hughes and Craig Serjeant. England was also affected, but not as badly. The English captain Tony Greig was stood down from the captaincy as punishment, but retained his place in the side. Mike Brearley replaced Greig as England captain. Despite reasonable returns the inexperienced Australians were outplayed, and England won the series 3-0 with two matches drawn. England therefore regained The Ashes for the first time since 1972.
Read more about Australian Cricket Team In England In 1977: Australian Touring Party, Test Series, One-day International Series, Other Tour Matches, External Sources, Annual Reviews
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