Cricket faces a '70s-style moment of reckoning
Suddenly it's shades of 1977 in Australian cricket. The players' association has rejected the financial deal proposed by the board and there is uncertainty surrounding the next television-rights deal.
A similar formula in 1977 resulted in the advent of World Series Cricket. The players were agitating for better pay and conditions and Kerry Packer - the owner of the Nine network - was apoplectic when the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) refused his offer of substantially more money for the television rights, then held by the ABC network.
Packer didn't take rebuttal lightly and with his curse, "the devil take the hindmost", ringing in their ears, he commenced a torrid legal battle with the cricket administrators. He found plenty of willing allies among the players, and worldwide more than 50 signed to play for the television magnate.
The animosity towards the administrators had been building among the Australian players since the tours of India and South Africa in 1969-70. In 1974-75, Dennis Lillee - the premier fast bowler - had just returned after a serious back injury and described his displeasure at the pay scale (A$200 per Test), in a series of newspaper articles.