 However the tourists, led by new captain Greg Chappell, were rocked prior to the start of the 1977 Ashes series by the conflict between the Australian Cricket Board and Kerry Packer's Nine Network that emerged following the Centenary Test regarding the rights to television broadcasts of cricket in Australia.Packer wanted to transfer the rights to televised cricket from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) who had held the rights since 1956, to his own Nine Network and was prepared to pay a much larger amount than ABC.Despite this, the Australian Cricket Board refused, and Packer set about creating a rebel World Series Cricket (WSC) league, successfully recruiting many star international players in the process.