Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War

From the moment Howzat! hit the airwaves, it was clear the producers weren’t going to pull any punches with their presentation of Kerry Packer’s character. How could they? The millionaire businessman behind the Nine Network and World Series Cricket was too well known as a powder keg waiting to go off. But that doesn’t stop them trying to offer the excuse that extreme times require the presence of extreme men.

Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War is a two-part miniseries that chronicles Packer’s battle to turn test cricket into a one-day televised phenomenon. It centres on the struggles between Packer’s team of hand-picked enthusiasts, and the old-school cricket boards of the world, and covers the origins of interesting innovations like batting helmets, night cricket, white balls and coloured uniforms. But for all that, the drama settles firmly on the man who drags the sport kicking and screaming into the 20th century by sheer bloody-minded determination. The problem is, Packer’s persistence created victims on both sides of the battle.

Audiences watch Kerry unload all of his vehemence on the officials that seek to block his attempts to sign cricket players to a rebel series. He tells journalists,

“If the cricket boards cooperate there’s no reason why test cricket will be affected. If they don’t, they’ll walk straight into a meat mangler.”

But he doesn’t hold back on the team that’s trying to help him either. Take Rose for example, Packer’s secretary and office punching bag. She walks into his office to take part in the following exchage:

Kerry: “What’s that you’re wearing?”
Rose: “Don’t you like it?”
Kerry: “You look like a sack of potatoes. Get us some lunch – a couple of hamburgers and some milkshakes!”

Howzat! portrays Packer as a pig of a man, his sole redeeming feature being that he is apparently doing everything for the love of a pastime that is, “… not just a game, it’s … something more.” And where that explanation fails, the excuse that he only ever knew cruelty from his own father is wheeled out. But the argument is flimsy at best. To begin with, no abuse justifies someone becoming an abuser. More so, the greatness of the goal doesn’t justify laying aside all restraints.

More cricket on our screens?

The Nine Network is counting this series as an unqualified success with the nostalgic value delivering 2.09 million viewers on both nights. Rumours have already surfaced about its intentions to pursue a sequel centring on the life of Shane Warne. It was clearly a bloody battle to revolutionise cricket, and some would say a bloody man like Packer was required to do it. However, neither he nor Warne will be able to sustain the argument that the ends justify the means. Spending millions to suggest that we would value sinful people if we only understood them better only continues to promote a fallacy that was doing the rounds when Jesus walked the earth. Our Lord warned His disciples against people who would come with motivations worthy of the prophets of old, but would ultimately prove to be ravenous wolves. He says that understanding who someone truly is isn’t actually all that hard. Turn down the volume on their justifications and look at the way they behave:

“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”

The advice is as valuable appraising Nine’s portrait of Kerry Packer, as it is evaluating the hearts of those around us, and especially our own. Consistently bad fruit? Then the tree is rotten whatever is said about it, and only God can do something about that.

Watching Howzat! with your kids

Nine’s two episode series has finished going to air but stay tuned for re-runs and note that Howzat will still be available online for four weeks to come. The language is hard on the ears but if it still draws the attention of cricket tragics in your family it’s well worth asking:

• The friends that explained Kerry’s anger – did they excuse him, or just enable him to do more damage?
• Kerry seemed to regret bullying his secretary, but did you ever hear him say sorry?
• Can you really be forgiven without repenting?

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