It was 25 years ago this week that World Series Cricket creaked into action – slowly at first, but eventually it changed cricket in many ways. Floodlit games, coloured clothing, white balls, black screens ... all these were pioneered by the Australian entrepreneur Kerry Packer and his travelling band of players. When WSC was set up in 1977, in direct opposition to official Test cricket, Packer's players were banned from establishment cricket, and the matches had to be played at non-regular venues – which led to another innovation, pitches grown in greenhouses and dropped into place in the middle.

Dennis Amiss, the former England opener, was one of those who signed up. In this exclusive video he tells Wisden.com how it all came about.

There are also contributions from Bob Woolmer (another Packer signee), Everton Weekes, Barry Richards and Wayne Daniel ... and Graham Yallop, who had the unenviable task of leading the depleted official Australian Test side in an Ashes series the following year, along with a seperate video interview of Ian Chappell's thoughts on the whole affair soon after it had been announced.

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