Nominal vs present value
Local display: $0.2m · Rebased to 2024 USD via US CPI-U
How the total breaks down
World Series Cricket contract (average annual). A three-year package reported at roughly $90,000, several times a standard board contract of the era.
Retained West Indies board match fees. Official match fees that continued alongside the unofficial WSC schedule.
Impact 80
- Led the West Indies into cricket's first true breakaway pay revolt
- Helped prove touring international stars could be paid several times their board rate
- Set a precedent boards worldwide had to answer within two years by raising fees
Lloyd's West Indies signed en masse for Packer's league, and the ensuing pay pressure forced official boards to permanently raise player fees once World Series Cricket folded back into the mainstream game in 1979. Every subsequent cricket pay dispute — from rebel tours to the IPL's own launch three decades later — traces its negotiating leverage back to the precedent Packer's money set.
Lloyd captained the West Indies through Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, signing a three-year deal reported at around $90,000 — several times what an official board contract paid at the time, even before the international team's usual match fees. The tiny nominal figure by today's standards understates its significance: it was the first time cricket's establishment had to compete on price for its own players, a lesson the sport never fully unlearned.