Return To Official Cricket
After Packer reached a deal with the cricket authorities the Australian WSC players returned to their State sides and were once again available for international selection. Having played well during WSC Laird was selected immediately for the Australian XI to face the West Indies in 1979 at Brisbane. He scored 92 and 72 in the drawn match. All but three of the Australian XI had played WSC, Alan Border, Kim Hughes and Rodney Hogg those who did not. Laird scored 69 in the second innings of the second test however the Australians were thrashed by ten wickets. Another fifty followed in the third and final test however the West Indians won convincingly again by 408 runs. Alvin Kallicharran, their only non-WSC player, scored a match winning century. This test series was run in the same format as Packer's Supertests with matches played between three sides, England also featuring. In the two tests Laird played against England his top score was 74 in the third test. Australia beat England in all three matches.
Alongside the test series against the West Indies, the first World Series Cup was played. The tournament was the spin-off from WSC and followed the same triangular format, England again being the third team. Laird played his first ODI against the West Indies on 27 November 1979 scoring 20 from 38 balls as Australia won by 5 wickets. That would be his top score in the tournament as Australia did not qualify for the final.
This was a busy time for the Australian international cricketers as a tour to Pakistan followed in February 1980 just days after the conclusion of the third test against England. Greg Chappell led the side and Laird partnered Graham Yallop at the top of the order in the first test in Karachi. The Pakistan side featured seven former WSC players and defeated the Australians by 7 wickets. It was in Karachi that Laird passed 500 test runs. Having gone 1-0 up the second test was played on a typically dead Pakistani wicket designed for a draw. Australia scored 617 from 211 overs including a double century from Greg Chappell, but Laird missed out bagging a duck fourth ball. Predictably the third test at Lahore also ended in a bat dominated draw with Julien Wiener opening with Laird for the second match scoring 93 and Alan Border a patient 150 from six and a half hours at the crease.
After the tour to Pakistan, the Australians went to England to play the second Centenary Test match at Lord's. The match was not as exciting as the first Centenary Test in Melbourne in 1977, ending in a draw as a Geoffrey Boycott (128 not out) inspired England refused to chase 370 in a day finishing on 244 for the loss of just three wickets.
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