![]() He said it wasn't his fault and the coroner agreed, concluding "I cannot attach any blame to Mr Packer." In evidence at the inquest into the boys' deaths, Packer said the car veered onto his side of the road, he tried to swerve but was unable to avoid the collision. They all died instantly, while Packer and Mrs Ash were badly injured. Mrs Ash was asleep next to him, while her two young boys slept in the back.Īt about 1am, on a straight stretch of road just before Goulburn, Packer was involved in a collision with an oncoming car containing three young Canberra boys. He had been sleeping in the passenger seat but took over driving half an hour before the accident. Kerry was driving back from the snow in a car belonging to Mrs Ash, a friend of the family's. The accident occurred in September 1956, when Kerry was 18. "He told me he'd been involved in a fatal car accident, that he had been drinking, and that he has never drunk since." Variations on this story are retold by various friends and employees.īut why did his father, an enthusiastic drinker, make the bet in the first place? Phillip Adams may have the answer. He says he got the car and by then had got used to not drinking. When asked about this by Don Lane in 1977, he explained that his father made a deal with him: if he didn't drink until his 21st birthday he'd give him a sports car. He had been a heavy drinker but stopped abruptly in his late teens. So the fact that he didn't touch alcohol was a significant and uncharacteristic act of self-control. Cost him a lot of money but eventually he got 'em."īut despite his many accomplishments, a sense of unworthiness haunted Kerry Packer throughout his life. He saw the commercial potential of cricket broadcasts and was willing to risk everything to wrest exclusive rights away from the ABC.Īs Ian Chappell says: "He wanted the rights to cover cricket in Australia. For this, ultimately, was what World Series Cricket was all about. Most importantly, it guaranteed Packer exclusive rights to broadcast cricket in this country. ![]() It made cricket a truly professional sport and pioneered the kind of lively cricket broadcasting we take for granted today. Packer's alternative cricket competition only lasted two years in the late '70s but its legacy is astonishing. If Cleo gave him confidence, World Series Cricket established him internationally as a force to be reckoned with. The success of Cleo wasn't enough to guarantee he had left his father's accomplishments in the rear-view mirror Kerry needed more. Packer’s dyslexia, which was an issue throughout his life, likely contributed to his difficulties at school. He admitted this contributed to "the hardening of the shell". In a revealing interview in 1978, Packer recalled that by the time he returned to school in Sydney he was so far behind the other children he became "a bit of a laughing stock". He used to talk to me about his ugliness and whenever there was a cartoon in the paper he’d study it, convinced that they were drawing the face." Kerry thought everyone could see that half his face was locked and he began to think of himself as the Elephant Man. "Incidentally that polio became a part of Kerry's insecurity. While there he contracted polio and pneumatic fever, spending nine months in hospital before moving to Canberra for two years to recuperate.īroadcaster Phillip Adams, a Packer confidante in the 1970s and '80s, recalls: "He never talked much about his mother except to point out that neither mum nor dad had much time to visit him when he was suffering from polio. Not long after, following the midget submarine attacks on Sydney Harbour during World War II, he was sent to live with an aunt at Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands. His parents were involved in the war effort and at the age of five Kerry was sent to board at Cranbrook, down the road from the family mansion. By his own admission, Kerry had a lonely, disrupted childhood.
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