Kerry Packer was a revolutionary. Ideas constitute a powerful force in this world. Good ideas need wings and as well as landing gear and Packer had both. It is not very easy to get the international players not to play for their nation and instead get them to play for an organisation. He managed to lure the top cricketers not to play for the laurels of their country by offering them what they deserved, with muscle power and Channel Nine.
What mattered was that he had a credibility and cricketers who agreed to play for him believed in him. He broke away the monopoly of the cricket boards of all the cricket playing nations. It was only after that these boards started entering into contract with the cricketers and gave them a much better deal than they were getting before.
This marked the beginning of players adhering to new set of rules and regulations. The policy was better to prevent and prepare than repent and repair.
Change is not necessarily progress in life. But nothing is certain. Change comes automatically in life. Things change for the better and I would say that cricket has changed for better. There is more money flowing into the game and more innovations coming in with that. If there is no change in one day cricket it would become monotonous. Test cricket is mother of cricket and one day cricket is a pyjama cricket.
For example, everyone knew what was going to happen in the first fifteen overs. You slam the ball hard in these overs, go slow for next twenty five and then hit the ball to all corners of the ground in the last ten overs. Changes in the field restrictions are thought provoking. Now that can be divided into three parts. This tests the skills of the captain as well as the skills of the fielding side.
Packer's death is a big loss to the cricketing world. He was a man who had forethought in life. He could have vision and see it materialise. Good intentions die unless they are executed. His plans were totally different from the others. Packer was different because he had his original ideas. He thought in his own peculiar manner and he carved a place for himself in the competitive world of cricket. And for that he got dividends. And to make a headway you got to use your brains.
(Navjot Singh Sidhu spoke to Senior Associate Editor Onkar Singh in Mumbai)
Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
