Denness Packer manager

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 56

Denness Packer manager

NZPA Melbourne The former England test captain, Mike Denness, has been signed as manager of the Rest of the World team in Mr Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket troupe, it was announced yesterday. The general manager of World Series Cricket, Mr Vern Stone, also told a press conference that the West Indian team manager would be Dr Rudi Webster, a West Indian radiologist now living in Melbourne.

The manager of the Australian team to compete in the series would be named next week, Mr Stone said. A third new signing named yesterday for the Australian television magnate’s cricket series was the former Australian test umpire Mr Jack Collins, who retired in the 1975-76 season.

Mr Collins will join Peter Enright, of Queensland and Western Australia’s Mr Bruce Duperouzel as umpires for the Packer series. Mr Stone later took journalists on an inspection tour of special hot-houses where wickets for the series are being prepared. He said the wicket for the first match, starting in Melbourne on December 2, would be inserted into the turf at V.F.L. Park in suburban Waverley in a few weeks. The 100-ton wicket would be transported 600 metres from the hot-houses to the wicket area by hovercrafts, Mr Stone said.

The preparation of wickets in Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide was costing the Packer troupe about $ Aust IM while the over-all cost of promoting and staging the initial season of World Series Cricket matches was about sAustsM.