The packer affair - Henry Blofeld

Medium Hardcover - Moderate wear

Sports : Non-Fiction

A full account of the controversy that tore cricket in two

The 'Packer Affair' burst upon the world on 9 May, 1977 and has been headline news ever since. No cricket story has lasted as long nor had such repercussions. The Bodyline row of the '30s seems small by comparison, the d'Oliveira crisis of the '60s short-lived.

Henry Blofeld was given exclusive interviews with both Packer and deposed England captain Tony Greig, covered the story all summer for the Guardian, and last winter was the only correspondent to see both the Packer Tests in Australia (for which he was a BBC commentator), the Australia-India Test series, MCC play first Pakistan and then New Zealand, and finally the young Australian side take on the 'Packer-filled' West Indies. In seven weeks, in fact – between 23 January and 17 March – he watched all six Test-playing countries playing Test cricket, the first time this has ever been possible.

Whilst he records these main Test series, however, Blofeld's concern throughout is with the human dimensions of the controversy. The varied reactions of the English county players, and of the players overseas; the legal tussles; the complex and surprising character of Packer himself, and the establishment figures with whom he did battle: the strands of the story are expertly woven together to make The Packer Affair a dramatic, even moving story. It will be one that is much discussed – the cricketing book of the 1978 year.