There's been a lot of inaccurate twaddle written in the overseas media about the late Kerry Packer over the past week. I could get nasty and single out some exceedingly bad pieces of near-fiction that I have seen in some of the Indian newspapers, but I would have expected better of CricInfo than to describe him as "one-day cricket's inventor".

"I've been to the other side son, and there's f#$king nothing there."

- Kerry Packer, on his heart attack in 1990, during which he was clinically dead.

Kerry Packer, who died on Monday night, was one of the most remarkable characters of modern-day Australia. His career, his lifestyle, his personality made for a capitalist's wet dream. But he wasn't so much a captain of industry as he was the overlord of a feudal empire.

It would be nice to be so filthy rich that you could give untold amounts of inherited wealth away and still live the most extravagant life of reclusion yourself.

John Paul Getty Jr, who died the day before Good Friday at the age of 70, was a classic case. One of the richest of rich kids who almost wrecked his health through the drug addiction that eventually killed his second wife, Getty reinvented himself as a British gentryman and generous philanthropist. He even became a cricket fan.