By Martin Gough BBC Sport Online

World Series Cricket is best remembered as a blaze of floodlights and a flash of coloured clothing.

Those signing big-money contracts knew that they would be up against the finest players in the world in every match that they played.

But there was a less glamorous side to Kerry Packer's plan to revolutionise cricket, and it involved taking the game to every corner of Australia.

Communities as diverse as Currumdin in north Queensland; Morwell, Victoria and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales found some of the world's finest in town for the first time.

And making up the numbers in the second year of the competition was a Cavaliers XI, a side containing the spare players from the other three and captained by South African Eddie Barlow.

Last-minute calls

Those who would have been stars had they remained in Test cricket, such as England fast bowler John Snow, Pakistani spinner Mushtaq Mohammad and Australia's Kerry O'Keeffe were regulars.

And others, like English batsman Bob Woolmer, were often called from duty with the star sides to make up the numbers.

"I arrived at the ground and Eddie said, 'Put your pads on, you're next in," Woolmer says.

"I'd only just done that and a wicket fell; I almost literally went from the plane to the pitch, I didn't have time to think about it."

Despite his mind being elsewhere, Woolmer hit 60, but the Cavaliers lost, as they did in all but five of their 23 matches.

For some, the whole experience was demoralising.

"To face bowling up-country, knowing Wisden was never going to record it, frustrated me enormously," wrote O'Keeffe.

But Woolmer found playing for Packer, at whatever level, rewarding.

"You were never playing anything but international cricket," he says.

"It may have been in the bush but the West Indies would still have an attack of Holding, Roberts, Croft and Garner.

"It was the toughest cricket I've ever played."

Professionalism

When they weren't playing, there were coaching trips to local clubs to undertake, promotional visits to restaurants and media interviews.

They may not have been the major money-spinners, but the Cavaliers had a full management team, press liaison and even someone on hand to look after the players' wives.