Still in his late teens when he joined the family business, Australian Consolidated Press, one of Mr Packer's first moves after taking control was to take on the cricket establishment.
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His World Series instituted gaudy uniforms and replaced red balls with white ones in spotlit day-night matches, to cater for television viewers. Kerry Packer was the man who dragged cricket kicking and screaming into the modern media era. James is expected to take over the whole empire. He recently acquired a 50% stake in the British gaming company Betfair's Australian and New Zealand operations. The empire includes Australia's Nine television network, top-selling magazines and Melbourne's Crown Casino. Mr Packer combined his media and gaming interests into Publishing & Broadcasting in 1994, eventually handing over to his son James in 1998. An impulsive gambler he is rumoured to have once lost £13m in a three-day session in Las Vegas. He also indulged his passions of gambling and horses. He shrewdly sold the Nine Network to Alan Bond for $1bn in 1987, and was able to buy it back for a quarter of the price three years later.
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He gained full control of the media company in 1982, in a move which ultimately allowed him to make his multi-billion dollar fortune. Just three years later he was taking on the cricket establishment, signing the game's top players under the banner of World Series Cricket.
In 1974 he took over running the conglomerate. The second son of Sir Frank and Lady Gretel Packer, Kerry entered the family business, Australian Consolidated Press, in 1956. It was his job to put right, and put it right he did. The thing that struck me most was that he was concerned only with the players. The commentator and former player Richie Benaud said: "There was never anything mundane or orthodox about him. "He was a bloke with such an incredible sense of fun and there was that charisma whenever you were associated with him. Tony Greig, the former England captain and trusted lieutenant of Mr Packer, said the world had lost a truly great Australian. "He was a larger than life character and in so many ways he left his mark on the Australian community over a very long career in business."Īt the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Australian national team, who are currently playing South Africa, wore black armbands and the crowd observed a minute's silence. The country's prime minister John Howard described Mr Packer as a great Australian. Mr Packer had a heart bypass operation the following year and has been in hospital in both Sydney and New York several times since. He commented after the incident: "The good news is there's no devil. In 1990, he suffered a near-fatal heart attack that saw his heart stop during a polo match. His other kidney was removed after it was found to be cancerous in 1986. He underwent a kidney transplant in November 2000, receiving an organ donated by his helicopter pilot and long-term friend Nicholas Ross. He has also reported for Channel 9's 'A Current Affair' and '60 Minutes', written for the Sydney Morning Herald and presented 'Breakfast' on Radio National.He was also instrumental in transforming the world of cricket through his World Series gambit of the late 1970s that introduced coloured clothing, white balls, floodlights - and better pay - to the international game.Ī spokesman for his Publishing and Broadcasting group confirmed that Mr Packer had died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside.Ī heavy smoker, Mr Packer had suffered a series of health scares over recent years. He is a former host of the ABC's 'Media Watch' and Channel 7's 'Witness'. Paul Barry's work as a journalist has won numerous awards, including a Walkley in 2001 for an expose on tax-dodging barristers. He followed up with Going for Broke, the story of how Alan Bond hid his fortune, and then revealed how the Packers and Murdochs lost $950m in One.Tel in Rich Kids. His second book, The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer, was the top-selling biography of the 1990s. Since then, his books have dominated the bestseller lists. This led to his first bestseller, The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond. A journalist with the BBC for ten years, he came to Australia in 1987 to work for the ABC's 'Four Corners', where one of his hardest-hitting reports was on multi-millionaire Alan Bond. Born and educated in England, award-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author Paul Barry studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University.
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