Can anyone save Aussie cricket?

Insomniacs, invalids and cricket obsessives (step forward yours truly) were probably the only people who stumbled on it, but BBC4 put out a cracking drama from Down Under the other day called Howzat! It was subtitled ‘Kerry Packer’s War’ and was a rumbustious retelling of how the Australian media millionaire put a bomb under the sport with World Series Cricket, complete with Boogie Nights moustaches, preposterous hairstyles and tight, tight shorts. There was no doubt who were the show’s villains (that would be the uptight suits at Lord’s and the MCG, not to mention the intimidating off-screen presence on the phone of an ultra-traditional ‘Sir Donald’), and who the downtrodden heroes (that would be the cricketers, often forced to take part-time jobs to make ends meet). When the handsome but angsty David Hookes threatened to leave WSC because he doesn’t want to risk his job at a garage in Adelaide, Packer replied, ‘Listen mate. I’ll buy the fucking garage and then you can work when you want.’

Packer’s ferocious destabilising campaign can be seen clearly as one of the principal forces that helped to turn international cricket into the global money machine it now is. Amid the corporate hospitality, champagne tents, food villages and banqueting suites at Lord’s last week, the spirit of the grisly old hammerhead shark was probably smiling grimly. In Packer’s day, an Aussie team could field Ian and Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dougie Walters, not to mention Lillee and Thomson. They would all have been welcome in the dressing room at Lord’s — to bawl out their underperforming countrymen if not to put on some whites themselves.

What has happened to Australian cricket? That was a peculiarly dismal contest at Lord’s, no matter how much Cook , Swann, Prior and the rest big up the skill of the Aussies and say what a hard game it was.