Bradman & Packer: The Deal that Changed Cricket

by Daniel Brettig

In 1977 Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket insurgency jolted a staid and traditional sport into a period of chaos and upheaval. Pitting traditionalists against revolutionaries, and players against their paymasters, the affair forever altered not only the power dynamics of the summer game, but the way in which it was presented and viewed.

Much is now understood of Packer’s role in first seizing control of cricket, then handing it back in a drastically different shape, but far less of the part played by Sir Donald Bradman— better known as the game’s greatest batsman, but also an administrator of far-reaching, if secretive, influence.

In Bradman & Packer — The Deal that Changed Cricket, journalist Daniel Brettig, author of the award-winning Whitewash to Whitewash, deftly reconstructs the shadowy period that remade cricket. When two titans of Australian life came face to face in a clandestine meeting, they brokered the peace deal that ended a sporting war.

Following on from Gideon Haigh’s acclaimed Crossing the Line— How Australian cricket lost its way, Bradman & Packer is the second instalment in Slattery Media Group’s ‘Sports Shorts’ collection, a new home for lively and engaging writing on sport. Every edition will illuminate and entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2019

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bradman/Packer angle definitely brings something new to the table but the majority of the book is basically a compilation of wider works. Still, it was enjoyable to take a trip down memory lane - you tend to forget just how divisive it was at the time. It's also interesting to have a look at how much, both the game and its 'administration', has evolved in the past 40 years. Sure, it wouldn't have sat still for all that time, but you do wonder how it would have all ended up without Packer.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick little piece of cricket nerdery. A lot about broadcasting negotiations, of which I know nothing about. Bradman and Packer’s respective personalities are painted well, in fact I probably moved them from opposite ends of the spectrum of likability to each somewhere slightly closer to the middle.

[Connor FitzGerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was okay. Good to know what happened around the circumstances of World Series Cricket and the surprising and unknown meeting between two large Australian public figures. But maybe a little too specialised for my tastes. Well written by a good cricket journalist.