Jeff Thomson (Kiwi actor Ryan O'Kane) gets ready to bowl in a scene from Howzat! Kerry Packer's War. Photo/File
It was the day that Kerry Packer's War came to Wanganui.
Like many cricket tragics I watched with interest the award-winning 2012 Australian mini-series Sky TV broadcast this week, finding it a thoroughly entertaining yet somewhat rose-tinted-glasses look at the "Packer Circus" of the late 1970s when the miffed mogul decided if he could not secure the television rights for Aussie test matches, then he'd just create his own World Series Cricket.
What followed in the next three years shook the sports establishment to the core as Packer would eventually recruit more than 50 international stars, finally paying them what they were worth (or at least thought they were) to play under the innovative conditions of night-time cricket with white balls and sparkling coloured uniforms.
Given the four-hour series was a Nine Channel production, one had to expect it would sanctify Packer's motives of the time by emphasising the more philanthropic goal to improve the living wage of players, while revolutionising how the game was played and how its presentation was modernised.
While begrudgingly showing some of that pesky other side of Packer's nature - his ruthless aggression - the series seems to avoid the prospect of legal action as the worst of the signature tongue lashings found in Lachy Hulme's portrayal are delivered to fictional characters rather than living subjects, his long-suffering secretary and the stressed WSC manager, played by Kiwi actor Craig Hall.
As well, what should be remembered is the deep resentment Packer's takeover created within Australia's playing ranks between the breakaway rebels and those who remained loyal (voluntarily or via Packer exclusion) to the official test team - scars that took the better part of a decade to heal.
Another thorny matter this production downplayed was WSC's recruitment of South Africa's leading players, as however enthralling it was to see the estimable Barry Richards batting on the world stage, the fact remains the international sporting boycott imposed due to that nation's apartheid policy was circumvented by Packer's dollars.
In the battle between the monopolies, Packer being squeezed out of Australia's major test grounds saw him take his show to the Queensland backblocks and, in WSC's second season, a nine-game tour of New Zealand.
So it was on November 13-14, 1979, that Wanganui played host to a pair of one-day games between the WSC Australians and World XI, hastily rescheduled after the planned three-day match was canned by the one factor even Packer could not control - rain.
It could only be under this kind of sporting, political and media maelstrom where circumstances would dictate that legends like fiery fast bowler Dennis Lillee, gifted allrounder Clive Rice and ruthless batsmen brothers Greg and Ian Chappell trotted out on to Cooks Gardens.
Veteran broadcaster Grant McKinnon told me that, in part because the washout on November 12 led to a 30-over and 50-over game, it seemed WSC's struggle to find its audience did migrate across the Tasman.
"A great occasion, but I don't think it attracted the crowds at the time," he said. "People came, but I think the stop/go nature of the game [hindered it].
"The actual match seemed second to the fact we haven't seen players of this quality in Wanganui, before or since."
Having played on converted Aussie Rules fields with drop-in pitches, it seems the makeshift nature of Cooks Gardens would have been a familiar sight for those big names, given reconstruction was still under way after the old Snell Pavilion burned down.
"The top of it wasn't completely finished so we set up a commentary box - you had to climb a ladder on the landing to get up," said McKinnon.
Filling in the wet-weather time, his personal highlight was a 20-minute interview with great English fast bowler and media personality Fred Trueman; the spirited Yorkshireman happily joining him in a lunch of sandwiches made by McKinnon's wife.
Also clambering up to their crow's nest was Wanganui's former New Zealand captain Harry Cave for a warm reunion between the old test foes.
For the record, the World XI got first blood on November 13 with a 25-run win, reaching 149-7 on the back of a well-made 51 by Richards, while a young Richard Hadlee, playing with the blessing of his NZ Cricket chairman father Walter, took 3-8 in 5.1 overs as they dismissed the Aussies for 124.
Next day a stronger Australian line-up included the Chappells and put on 178 (Ian scoring 66), then bowled the World XI out for a paltry 75, with Lillee getting three scalps while right-armer Mick Malone got 4-9 from his 10 overs.