SYDNEY, 28 December 2005 — Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man, a pugnacious media mogul with a passion for sport, died overnight in Sydney, his television network said yesterday. He was 68.

Channel Nine gave no cause of death but Packer had been plagued by ill health for more than a decade.

“He died peacefully at home with his family at his bedside,” the television station said.

Packer built a multibillion-dollar broadcasting and publishing empire, as well as transforming the way international cricket is played to make it more television-friendly for the media age. The Australian cricket community yesterday mourned the passing of Kerry Packer, acclaimed as the greatest influence in reshaping the modern-day game.

Cricket Australia Chairman Creagh O’Connor said Packer stood alongside the late Don Bradman as one of the giants who had influenced the shape of Australian cricket.

“That cricket is today taken for granted as a natural part of the Australian way of life is in no small measure due to his influence,” O’Connor said in a statement.

“The so-called ‘Packer revolution’ in the 1970s has left a lasting legacy in the way the game is played, administered and presented to the public. One-Day International cricket is now an international phenomenon as a result of Kerry Packer.” Australian captain Ricky Ponting said Packer had left his mark on cricket in Australia.

“Kerry Packer’s one of the all-time great thinkers and figures of Australian cricket,” Ponting told Channel Nine. “It’s an extremely sad day for the whole cricket community in Australia.”

“Shane was a pretty close friend of Kerry’s, so it’s an extremely sad day and it’s a huge loss for the cricket community.”

International Cricket Council President Ehsan Mani said Packer changed the face of cricket.

“His World Series Cricket took the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into the modern era and although, at the time, many people had reservations, the current healthy state of our sport shows how wise he was,” Mani said in a statement.

Channel Nine commentators Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Ian Chappell and Bill Lawry described Packer as a generous, charismatic man who had a great sense of fun and was a lateral thinker toward the way cricket was televised. Former England captain Greig, one of the central players in World Series Cricket, described Packer as his mentor and friend.

Packer is survived by James, wife Ros and daughter Gretel.