what was the contribution of Kerry packer in commercialising cricket?
Answers
“Cricket is a marketable game and can generate huge revenues”.
Packer signed up fifty-one of the world's leading cricketer about two years staged unofficial Tests and One-Day internationals under the name World Series Cricket which became very popular.
Cricket games adopted new coloured dress, protective helmets for players. Field restriction, cricket under light was started at that time. All these made cricket more attractive to television audience and changed the nature of the game.
Modern cricket generated huge revenues. As it expanded the audience for the game by beaming cricket into small town and villages. Children of villages got a chance to see the international cricket. The world wide reach of multi-national television companies created a global market for cricket.
Cricket boards became rich by selling television rights to television companies. Again television channels made money by selling television spots to companies who were willingly paying large sums of money to air commercials for their products to attract the numerous audience of cricket.
Even today cricket earns a huge revenue due to its immense popularity.
Thus, the given statement holds true even today.