Kerry Packer

Kerry Packer died on the 26th.
I will remember Packer as the man who was responsible for the resurrection of one day Cricket. 25 years ago, at a time when the game was governed by old farts who were too tradition bound to experiment with different forms of presenting the game, Packer shook the Cricket world with his World Series Cricket. From 1977 – 79, WSC revolutionized the way Cricket was brought to the masses and made it an immensely more viewer friendly sport. Packers’ lateral thinking certainly ruffled some feathers in the establishment but also introduced Cricket to new media. Day-night onedayers, coloured clothes for the players, cameras at both ends of the pitch (this was Packers’ own idea. He said in his own inimitable way that he didn’t want to look at the batsmen’s backsides) breathed new life into Cricket. The Cricket that we see today has a lot to thank Packer for.
Cricket isn’t really a spectator sport. Many early Cricket traditionalists believed Cricket to be a sport only for the players. Through the many decades, no real effort was made by anyone, least of all the Cricket administrators to make Cricket more viewer friendly. Packer changed all that with his exciting brand of Cricket where personalities and entertainment were as important as the game itself.

Scuba

I was in Oman over the weekend and spent most of my time in Muscat. I liked the feel of the city. I realize now how much difference traffic and high rise buildings can make. Dubai, with its urban traffic mayhem and high rise buidings seems to dwarf any natural features of the surrounding landscape. It feels like just another characterless big city. However, in Muscat, the low and flat buildings seem to blend in with the surrounding topography and the undulations and other natural characteristics don’t remain hidden.
The high point of my visit was undoubtedly the snorkeling trip that my brother and I went on. Oman has some of the clearest waters in the Middle East, and also the safest (I was thankful to know). The underwater life is extremely rich and I noticed so many varieties of fish and other marine life that I struggled to identify. Snorkeling was exciting but I realized that I am way out of my comfort zone in open waters. My brother would swim away absorbed with the silent world below him but...and I am ashamed to write this...I was more than a little scared. I’ve seen too many shark films and sharks were such a big point of discussion in Australia that I kept imagining sharks everywhere in the water. In fact, there were no sharks in those waters but you know how one’s mind plays tricks. I never swam too far from our boat and I would resurface every few minutes to check that I wasn’t too far from other humans. I know this sounds silly but try as I would, I could not give my undivided attention to the world beneath. I remember a stretch of about five minutes when the life under held me in its grip and my fear vanished but that spell was broken when I saw a huge coral reef in front of me. It was pretty innocuous but to my frantic mind, it looked like a dark, black beast. I fairly skimmed the surface back to our boat. Anyway, I am going to try my hand at scuba diving again and this time I will try and be braver.