http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/230772.html
Kerry Packer, the man responsible for World Series Cricket and the explosion of the one-day game, has died in Sydney aged 68. Packer, a media mogul billionaire, was behind the damaging split from the Australian Cricket Board in the late 1970s in a fight over television broadcasting rights and when peace was achieved his Channel 9 coverage led the way in innovation.
A minute’s silence was held before the start of the second day of the Australia-South Africa Test and Cricket Australia said he was one of the most “influential men in its history”. Creagh O’Connor, the Cricket Australia chairman, said Packer stood alongside Sir Donald Bradman as one of the giants of the game.
“That cricket is today taken as granted as a natural part of the Australian way of life is in no small measure due to his influence,” he said. “The so-called Packer revolution’ left a lasting legacy in the way the game is played, administered and presented to the public via the influential Channel 9 telecast. One-day international cricket is now an international phenomena as a result of Kerry Packer.”
In the 1980s Packer was also influential in preventing players from taking part in rebel tours to South Africa and he signed up young players such as Steve Waugh on lucrative contracts with his company PBL. Shane Warne was another on his books until he was sacked last year for his off-field indiscretions and he was comforted by his team-mates during the minute’s silence.
“He has been a wonderful and very close friend of mine for over 13 years,” Warne said. “We shared a lot of time together talking about life, business, sharing funny stories and cricket, which was his love. These memories will last with me forever. I will always remember you KP as a wonderful character, a close friend, and everyone involved in world cricket owes you so much. Kerry was a very generous and caring man and I will miss you very much mate.”
Packer, who had a kidney transplant in 2000, had a history of serious illnesses and suffered severe health problems over the past couple of years. A statement from Channel 9 said he died “peacefully at home with his family at his bedside” on Boxing Day.