[MENTION=132916]Junaids[/MENTION] - there is a similarity between you and me. Both born in Bangladesh, you to an English father and me to a Bangladeshi parents with roots from west - two countries now by the name of India and Pakistan, and now you live in Australia and me in Canada, both love our cricket, both a bit nostalgic about the past and both are fans of PAK cricket, which brought us here in PP. But, there is a telling difference - my emotion never gets better of my good judgement and I never insult my rivals, even for genuine cause, let alone with fabricated stuffs. That's the only reason, despite stressing the mods' patience to breaking point several times (always almost forced to do - I never started slinging mud here), I am still here and every poster here has a place for me - some might not admit though. Reason - I am honest and I write what I can back, what I can explain and what I can prove from stats; but most importantly - I don't twist facts to fit in my story, and never insult people/nation uncalled for, though my personal loyalty/alliance might be different.
Coming to the WSC - what you have written here is just not blunt lie, it's disgustingly insulting as well - and worse is, you know that as well. In 1970s, Kerry Packer would have died for one Sunny Gavaskar & one VR Vishwanath for his circus - some of the players in his squad didn't have the worth of carrying kits for those two. During 1977 English Summer, Tony Greig was assigned to hire his team - one of the earliest guy (I heard it from Tony's own voice, sometimes in late 1990, during commentary - most probably in a masters game) he approached was Sunil Manohar Gavaskar - the reason, he already had one Barry Richards to open for him, he wanted Gavaskar to partner BA Richards. In a masters game, BA Richrads scored a marvelous 100 (the best ever I have see from a 50+ guy), and Tony referred to that - "..... I desperately tried to pair Barry with Sunny for Packer cricket, but it never happened".
In 1971-72, World tour of Australia, Sir Gary picked three Indians - Sunny, Bedi & Engineer, and three Pakistanis - Intekhab, Zaheer & Asif Masood. Three Indians played 14 games, three Pakistanis 11 - and that series was also entirely funded by Channel Nine. What you have said here is almost blasphemous - it's not Kerry Packer, rather Indians rejected WSC. It was not Kerry Packer, rather Indians decided that Packer's offer wasn't worthy enough. Here, Pakistanis and Indians have a reason to be biased and that's quite understandable - but I wonder why you decided to be the "Shikhandi" (A character from Mahabharat, obviously you can understand that his/her act wasn't famous for reputation) of PAK cricket - we both are fans of PCT (and I have no shame to admit that), isn't it enough?
Coming to the selection of WSC players - what you have written here is not only false, rather rubbish. This is what is actual story - don't call for reference, because my sources are multiple, but mostly from the horses mouth - Benaud, ChappelI, Tony .... Kerry Packer himself.
Packer first selected his two Captains - ChappelI for team Australia and Tony for RoTW, and they started to draft players for their team - 16 each (17 men squad). Packer himself was trying to hire WIN cricketers and he successfully drafted the entire squad bar Kalicharan, who was convinced (lured) by WICB in exchange of Captaincy, which Kali later regretted (read Wisden copy of 1982 or 83, forgot exactly). Now, Ian Chappel was a egomaniac, who decided not to pick Thompson (please don't tell me that Packer didn't rate him as well
- Thommo himself in 1999 WIN tour, while commenting expressed how desperate he was to join Packer, but he had to be politically correct, hence avoided IC's name) and Yellop (You know, he is good friend of Chappel bros....), from AUS squad of mid 1970s, but rest all joined him.
Toni started to hire players first from his own league - County cricket and it was the aging English players with sell by date joined him - Knott ( he was 32), Amiss (35), Underwood (33), Snow (36) & Woolmer (29) joined him. "Several English players were chosen for their Ashes profile" is a blunt lie - only 5 joined and the most successful four English players of 1977 Ashes were Boycott, Willis, Botham & Mike Hendricks - none of them joined Packers. Neither any youngster - Gower, Randal, Gooch, Edmonds.
Then, he targeted the easiest picks, the mercenaries - PAK players. Just like ICL, where almost entire PAK squad left for an unauthorized league risking their International career, I believe 9 PAK players signed for Packers over two seasons - Asif (Iqbal), Imran, Zaheer, Mazid, Sarfraz, Javed, Haroon Rashid, Mushtaq, Taslim Arif ....... now, please don't tell me that some of the names in that list were picked over Gavaskar, Bedi, Chandra, Kirmani, Vishy, Amarnath .... because of .... you know, courage. Then, he picked the rest squad from South Africans, players who had no home and had no identity - 5 of them joined. There was no Kiwi either - RJ Hadlee, Howarth & Turner declined. And, as a back-up WK to Knott, first Tony approached Kirmai, ended up signing Taslim Arif
. It's quite laughable to think that Packer picked 17 players for a complete squad with several 5 day and one day games scheduled .... and then didn't rate the best Test opener of 1970s because of an ODI innings.
I am not sure, before writing on this, if you had done your home work or took a chance that others won't do their home work either - but trust me, your post didn't brighten your reputation here ......
or even Tamim Iqbal in such tournament today.
In many ways and against certain top oppositions, Kapil even outperformed some of his other contemporaries of that time. His attacking lower order batting stood out in that era and as a bowler he was a work horse for India.
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