Kerry Packer, the polo-mad billionaire who some years ago came up with the idea of dressing one-day cricketers in multi-coloured outfits, underwent heart surgery in New York in August. Packer booked himself in to go under the knife of Texan surgeon Wayne Isom. Such is Isom's reputation that he was was once reputedly too busy to operate on Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Packer, forever the dealer, made sure nothing like that would happen to him. Apart from a considerable fee, Packer simply promised the golf-mad surgeon lessons with former world number one Greg Norman.
In 1990, Packer, who had a heart attack while playing polo in Australia, was declared clinically dead for eight minutes. When he came around, he told friends: "Believe me there is nothing on the other side. I have been there." No wonder he wants to stay in this life a little longer.
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