Australia’s cricketers donned black armbands for the second day of the Test against South Africa this morning to pay tribute to Kerry Packer, the media baron who transformed their sport.

Australia’s richest man Packer, 68, passed away peacefully with his family at his bedside, the tycoon’s own Channel Nine television station reported on Tuesday. He had built a multi-billion dollar broadcasting, publishing and gambling empire but had suffered from ill health for more than a decade.

Packer cheated death in 1990 when his heart stopped for several minutes after he suffered a heart attack on the polo field ? he boasted later that he had “been to the other side and there was nothing there.” He had a transplant in 2000 after his personal helicopter pilot offered to donate one of his kidneys.

Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, described Mr Packer as a ‘lifelong friend and tough competitor.’

“He was the most successful businessman of our generation,” Mr Murdoch said. “As a broadcaster, he had an uncanny knack of knowing what people across the country were thinking and this antenna made him the best broadcaster this country has seen.”

John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, said: “He was a great Australian, he was a larger-than-life character, and in so many ways he left his mark on the Australian community over a very long career in business.”

Packer inherited the media empire founded by his grandfather, Robert, and developed by his father, Sir Frank, a legendary newspaperman who launched the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine in 1933. The only part of the business he was not trained in was as a reporter ? he once called himself “academically stupid” ? but there was no doubting his skill in the boardroom.

His only son, James, is expected to take over the sprawling empire, which includes the Nine network, magazines, pay-television and Internet ventures as well as petrochemicals, heavy engineering, ski resorts, rural properties, diamond exploration and coal mines.

Packer was listed by Forbes magazine this year as the 94th richest man in the world with a ?2.8 billion fortune.

The tycoon will be best remembered for his decision to take on Australian cricketing authorities in 1977 after being refused the chance to bid for television rights.

In one of the most audacious sports coups in history, Packer secretly signed up Tony Greig, the England captain, and his Australian counterpart, Greg Chappell, as well as many other highly regarded players, and then went on to field his own teams in his own stadiums.

The move convulsed the sporting establishment and ultimately allowed him to wrest television rights to the game from the Australian Cricket Board. His World Series venture eventually came to a halt after the game’s authorities persuaded enough top players to return to the fold, but only after the mould had been broken and cricket had been put on a path towards greater popularity and success.

ICC president Ehsan Mani paid a glowing tribute. “His World Series Cricket took the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into the modern era and although, at the time, many people had reservations, the current healthy state of our sport shows how wise he was.”

Creagh ’Connor, the head of the game’s governing body in Australia, was equally profuse in his homage. “Kerry Packer stood alongside the late Sir Donald Bradman as one of the giants who influenced the shape of Australian cricket.”

A man with an irreverent personality, Packer was feared and respected by his staff, politicians and other businessmen. He was his nation’s biggest punter, plunging millions on favoured racehorses or on casino tables.

The low point of his public life came in the early 1980s, when an official inquiry was investigating the Australian drugs trade.