*302 Greig and Others v Insole and Others 1977 G. No. 22461977 J ...

[1978] 1 W.L.R. 302 Page 45
[1978] 1 W.L.R. 302 [1978] 3 All E.R. 449 (1978) 122 S.J. 162 [1978] 1 W.L.R. 302 [1978] 3 All E.R. 449 (1978)
122 S.J. 162
(Cite as: [1978] 1 W.L.R. 302)
matches.
It is theoretically possible that World Series Cricket
could have some indirect effect on the guarantees
which touring teams were able to arrange when visiting
another country, but I am not satisfied that this
factor at present poses any real threat to any of the
Test-playing countries.
In all the circumstances, on a close analysis
of the situation, I regard Australia as being the
only Test-playing country whose finances are effectively
presented with any real and immediate
threat by World Series Cricket. Australia is in a
special position, not only because about 20 of its
best players are under contract to World Series
Cricket, hut also because, as at present anticipated,
all the World Series Cricket matches will be played
on its soil. I think, however, that the extent of the
threat to it is somewhat imponderable. Mr. Ross
Edwards expressed the view in evidence that, on
balance, the impact of World Series Cricket on
Australia might be a financially beneficial one. He
thought, for example, that in the immediately impending
official Test series, the Indian team would
not be a very strong side and that the fielding of an
Australian team comprising younger, less experienced
players might well produce more exciting
matches that would attract greater public interest
and be more likely to run their full five-day schedule,
to the advantage of the gate receipts. He considered
that the World Series Cricket project could
operate to stimulate greater general interest in
cricket; and of course, such increased interest can
bring financial benefits to the game in the form of
more sponsorship and so forth. Nevertheless, there
are many factors on the other side. Not only are so
many of Australia's own star players involved and
thus likely to be unavailable, both for the visit from
India now in progress and for the tour by the United
Kingdom in 1978–79 but a number of the wellknown
United Kingdom players are also likely to
*352 be unavailable for the latter
tour. Furthermore, both these two Test series will
be being played at a time when World Series Cricket
matches, involving Australian and United Kingdom
players, will be taking place on Australian soil
and being televised by Channel Nine. The evidence
shows that at present it is not the intention that any
World Series Cricket matches will be played in the
same state as official Test Matches. Nevertheless,
the strong possibility must exist that the counterattraction
of World Series matches may result in a
number of people choosing to watch these matches
on their television sets (on Channel Nine) rather
than going in person to see official Test Matches.
Accordingly, I accept that World Series Cricket,
both by removing star players and by providing a
competing attraction, is on the balance of probabilities
likely to diminish the receipts of the Australian
Cricket Board from the two Test series mentioned
and thus to be detrimental to the financial interests
of official Australian cricket as at present organised.
(6)
The reasonableness or otherwise of the ICC ban
I thus arrive at the conclusion that as at July
26, 1977, World Series Cricket, taking into account
the 50 or so players who were then under
contract to it, presented an immediate threat to the
finances of Australian cricket, but no serious immediate
threat to the other Test-playing countries. In
the longer term, it did present further serious threats
to all the Test-playing countries in three ways, first
because other players might thereafter join World
Series Cricket, secondly because it was theoretically
possible that its programme might be extended
beyond the projected three years and thirdly because
other private promoters might conceivably be
encouraged to follow Mr. Packer's example. These
three threats, however, could have been adequately
met by merely imposing a prospective disqualification
from Test cricket on all players who should
thereafter contract with or play
for World Series Cricket or other unapproved
private promoters. I do not say that a merely prospective
ban of this nature would necessarily have
been valid. However, being narrower than the ban,
both prospective and retrospective, which was in
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