Adelaide Hawk wrote:It WAS the best cricket ever played, no doubt about that. I think that was because for the first time ever, all the elite talent in the world were assembled to form 3 teams. The standard from the players didn't improve, but the competition was more intense. Also, most players had already peaked prior to WSC.
It is a real shame that these matches are not recognised as 1st class matches. Players never found runs and wickets harder to come by than they did in WSC.
Actually 4 teams, if you count the Cavaliers. I think it actually destroyed the careers of a few Australians. Gary Gilmour, Martin Kent, Kerry O'Keeffe, Rob Langer - banished to provincial regions, never to be heard of again.
And certainly they didn't plunder the best of the English talent - Bob Willis and an emerging Ian Botham were bowling at Australia while the aging John Snow and Tony Greig played for the World XI.