KERRY Packer, an Australian business tycoon, initially just wanted to secure the rights of cricket in Australia for his Channel 9 network.
But, when his proposal was rejected by the Australian Cricket Board due to their existing and rather comfortable deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Packer decided to have his own cricket!

He signed Tony Greg, the then England captain and Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain. The two set about to recruit more local players from Australia and England.
The idea was to conduct matches between the Australian XI and the Word XI but as the tournament gained steam, several other players from West Indies and South Africa were also signed. Only India and New Zealand remained unaffected.

Apart from Derek Underwood, Alan Knott and John Snow, who joined early, leading world players such as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Andy Roberts, Imran Khan, Barry Richards and Mike Procter also came under the Packer umbrella.
Packer did a great job at concealing the secret while signing the big shot players. When he officially announced World Series Cricket on May 9, 1977, there was a huge uproar in the cricketing word.

At that time, Australia were preparing for their Ashes series in England and before the board could realise, 13 of the 17 players in the Australian squad were gone. England also suffered some losses as their board removed Greig from captaincy but the English team was still quite stronger and beat Australia by 3-0.

At the same time, World Series Cricket started to attract more and more attention and at its peak, it had signed 70 players. Pacer pumped a lot of money in marketing and signed big names to push the tournament. It did not take a lot of time for people to buy into the idea.

(Cricket World)