The Australian cricket community on Tuesday mourned the passing away of Kerry Packer, acclaimed as the greatest influence in reshaping the modern-day game. The following are how current and ex-players as well as former ICC president reacted to the news:

RICHIE BENAUD: He knew that the players were being in a sense financially downtrodden and it was his job to put it right, and put it right he did.

IAN CHAPPELL: He was a generous, charismatic man who had a great sense of fun and was a lateral thinker towards the way cricket was televised.

JAGMOHAN DALMIYA: Packer’s greatest virtue was his vision. In fact, he was the most influential men in the history of cricket. The fact that ODIs are now a truly international phenomenon is because of his vision. The way he revolutionised the game of cricket all over the world would be written in letters of gold.

TONY GREIG: It’s a very sad day for all of us. I think that the big thing is that cricket has lost one of its greatest friends and supporters. Probably even bigger than that, Australia as a nation has lost a truly great Australian. Cricket the world over, I don’t think, will ever know how different things would be without him.

RICKY PONTING: Kerry Packer’s one of the all-time great thinkers and figures of Australian cricket. It’s an extremely sad day for the whole cricket community in Australia. The Australian team and everyone involved in cricket in Australia pass on their condolences to the Packer family. I met Packer several times and had chatted about cricket and golf. A few of our guys in the side knew him a lot better than I did, Shane Warne being one of those.

SHANE WARNE: He has been a wonderful and very close friend of mine for over 13 years. We shared a lot of time together talking about life, business, sharing funny stories and, in particular, cricket, which was his love. These memories will last with me forever. I will always remember ‘KP’ as a wonderful character, a close friend, and everyone involved in world cricket owes him so much. (Agencies)