After unsuccessfully bidding for the right to air The Ashes media mogul Kerry Packer declares war on the cricket establishment by secretly forming a rebel competition with the world's best players.

Packer's plans for World Series Cricket are in disarray following attacks from the media, the establishment, and conflict among the players. Facing financial ruin, Packer and his team take steps to ensure the future of the series.

In 1976 Australian businessman Kerry Packer, miffed at not having been granted TV broadcasting rights by the Australian Cricket Board, threw the cricket world into turmoil by secretly signing up 50 of the world's best cricketers and establishing World Series Cricket, a highly-successful rebel tour which clashed head-on with test matches under the auspices of the cricket authorities. Howzat tells the story of the bitter two-year cricket war between Packer, with his highly-paid best-of-the-best professionals, and the cricket establishment doing its best to protect the hundred-year legacy of pride in the traditional nature of the mainly-amateur game. The result of the hostilities, won by Packer and his bunch of mavericks, was to change cricket forever. World Series Cricket introduced into the game a dramatic new era of dynamism and elite professionalism and thrust cricket into the modern era.