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

[1978] 1 W.L.R. 302 Page 9
[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)
The structure and finances of cricket in the Testplaying
countries are thus vulnerable, in the sense
that they are dependent to a considerable degree on
the continued popular attraction and profitability of
Test Matches. Anything which is likely to prejudice
such attraction or profitability must be of concern
to those organising cricket in those countries.
The very size of the profits which can be made out
of cricket matches involving star players, however,
must for some years have carried with it the risk
that a private promoter would appear on the scene
and seek to make money by promoting cricket
matches involving world-class cricketers. The risk
might perhaps have been a more limited one, if the
structure of official cricket in the Test-playing
countries had been such as to offer the most talented
cricketers a secure and remunerative career
structure. In this event, a private promoter might
perhaps have had few attractions to present to those
used to playing in conventionally organised cricket.
In a world situation, however, where no country
save the United Kingdom offers any real career
structure for an aspiring professional cricketer, and
the United Kingdom itself only offers rewards
which many professional cricketers have considered
inadequate, the path open to an aspiring
commercial promoter of cricket is a much easier
one. It is perhaps surprising that, so far as the evidence
shows, until the beginning of 1977 there had
never appeared any private promoter of cricket
matches who offered any real challenge to the conventional
structure of first class cricket. Nevertheless,
against the background which I have described
from a bird's eye viewpoint, such a challenge to the
conventional structure of cricket headed by the ICC
was bound to come sooner rather than later, and
this was what actually happened in the early
months of 1977.
During the period January to April 1977,
World Series Cricket engaged some 34 of the
world's leading cricketers (including four from
England, four from South Africa, four from the
West Indies, four from Pakistan and 18 from Australia)
under contracts which bound or purported to
bind these players to make themselves available to
play in a series of matches, described in the contracts
as “test matches,” to be organised by the
company *311 in Australia and possibly
elsewhere. The duration of the contracts varied
from one to three years (or in one case five
years). They were entered into in conditions of
secrecy, so as to facilitate recruitment. The news,
however, became public on May 9 and caused great
consternation among the governing bodies for
cricket of all the Test-playing countries. No one
could reasonably be surprised at such consternation
in the circumstances which have been summarised.
The decision for the court, however, will be whether
the particular steps which the ICC and TCCB
took in order to deal with the situation were justifiable
in law.
Briefly, the steps taken were the following. On July
26, the ICC, after anxious and protracted consideration,
passed a resolution changing its rules relating
to qualifications for Test Matches. The effect of
this change was that any player who, after October
1, 1977, should play or make himself available to
play in a match previously disapproved by the ICC
should thereafter be disqualified from playing in
any Test Match without the express consent of the
ICC, such consent to be given only on the application
of the governing body for cricket of the player's
country. The ICC then proceeded to pass a resolution
specifically disapproving for the purpose of
its rules, inter alia, any match arranged or to be arranged
by World Series Cricket to take place in
Australia or elsewhere between October 1, 1977,
and March 31, 1979. One of the effects of this disapproval,
coupled with the previous change of rule,
if valid, would thus be to disqualify from Test
cricket any cricketer, such as the individual
plaintiffs in these actions, who might after October
1, 1977, carry out his contract with World Series
Cricket by playing in a match arranged by it during
the period October 1, 1977, to March 31, 1979. Finally,
at its meeting on July 26, the ICC passed a
resolution strongly recommending that each mem-
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