National coach Gus Logie has paid tribute to Australian media mogul Kerry Packer who died on Monday aged 68, crediting him with laying the foundations for the modern game in the mid-1970s.

Packer, who was Australia?s richest man and head of the country?s largest television network, took on the cricketing establishment in 1977 by signing up the world?s best players on lucrative contracts to play Down Under under the banner of World Series Cricket (WSC) .

The groundbreaking and hugely controversial WSC may have arrived too early for Logie, who only made his debut for the West Indies in 1982, but the amiable Trinidadian played alongside many of those who took part and who had benefited greatly from the financial incentives that Packer brought to the table.

Logie insisted, however, that he personally would have resisted the temptation.

?There can be no doubt that Packer did a lot for cricket ? even if it did cause a huge number of problems and a lot of bitterness at the time,? he said.

?But that is so often how it is when somebody comes along and breaks the mould as he did. Yes, it was controversial but he has come to earn the respect of the world for what he did.

?World Series Cricket was well before my time, but a lot of the senior West Indian players back then were poorly paid and it made a lot of sense for them.

?As for me, as a 17-18 year old back in the Caribbean trying to make my way in the game, I probably would have stayed and tried to break into the West Indies team because it would have been too good an opportunity for me to have turn down at that stage of my career.

?But cricket benefited in the long term because of what Packer did and that is what is most important at the end of the day.?

At the time of Packer?s seismic intervention, cricket was universally regarded as a game in terminal decline and international cricketers of that era were among the worst paid professional sportsman in the world.

Big names in the sport such as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, a team-mate of Logie, and Greg Chappell spurned their own ailing governing bodies for the opportunity of playing thrills-and-spills cricket in front of sell-out crowds at some of Australia?s biggest grounds.

They were accused by bitter traditionalists of a cynical betrayal, although they argued that their pitiful wages and all-round shabby treatment had left them with little choice.

That aside, the trend of limited overs matches, played under lights with coloured clothing and white balls began under Packer?s brave cricketing revolution.

And although World Series Cricket lasted only two years, it is widely acknowledged to have changed the face of the game forever because it forced administrators to embrace a more professional and business-oriented approach.

Former England captain Tony Greig, who was at the forefront of the players? decision to break away, said: ?Cricketers the world over I don?t think will ever know how different things could have been without Kerry Packer.?