WHILE taking over the KP moniker from Kerry Packer, it is unlikely to have occurred to Kevin Pietersen that he could not have done it so flamboyantly without the changes brought about by the Australian tycoon.

Packer, who died this week, aged 68, was seen as a pariah by the establishment in 1977 when he creamed off 35 of the world's best cricketers, including the England captain Tony Greig, to play in a one-day series in Australia.

The ICC decreed that anyone taking part in Packer's Circus would be banned from Test cricket, but they were beaten in the courts, where the phrase "restraint of trade" had rarely been heard before with reference to sport.

Packer had a lasting impact through introducing floodlit cricket and coloured clothing, and he also ensured that cricketers became much better paid. One of the few to turn him down was Geoff Boycott, who would doubtless have been attracted by the money but probably didn't want to follow in Greig's footsteps.

The whole business came about because the Australian board would not grant Packer's Channel 9 exclusive rights to cover cricket. We now have a similar furore over Sky's exclusive rights, but they can take heart from the fact that Packer won his battle and became such a well-respected figure that he was invited into the royal box by the Queen to watch a polo match.

Polo became his passion, along with gambling. It was reported that in Las Vegas he met a Texan oilman who boasted that he was worth $60m. "Toss you for it," said Packer, who was a billionaire three times over.

AS one year ends with another Lee Bowyer dismissal, let's hope the new one begins with his wish being granted for a return to London. If no football club is daft enough to buy him perhaps he could follow in the footsteps of Vinny Jones and become a screen star. His snarling features surely belong on the set of East Enders.

Alternatively a Formula One team could snap him up and give him the chance to drive legally at well over 100mph, instead of doing it on the A1. He appears to have more speeding convictions than brain cells, having clearly managed to convince himself long ago that he is above the law. If he does get caught, so what? It's only a paltry fine.

The police's wish to see him convicted of assaulting teammate Kieron Dyer has been delayed by legal proceedings, but it was clear at the time of that fracas, if not long before, that someone with such a short fuse was a liability Newcastle could not afford. They should offer him at rock-bottom price in the January sales and hope he goes to either Fulham or Ferrari.

IT seems inevitable that health and safety issues will eventually dictate that all sport is cancelled. It hasn't quite reached that stage yet, but coupled with undersoil heating which doesn't work it made a mockery of Wednesday night's football programme.

As most people were still off work why were these matches not scheduled for the afternoon? It must be a measure of how desperate people are to get out during daylight hours after Christmas that thousands turned out to watch 150 competitors in the Maldon Mud Race on Boxing Day. This involves wading, crawling and scrambling across Essex's River Blackwater and its extensive mudbanks at low tide.

Others plunged into the North Sea, while 11,182 watched Carlisle play Darlington and there were huge crowds at Wetherby and Sedgefield races.

Almost 5,000 pitched up at York v Scarborough, even though neither are threatening to climb out of the Nationwide Conference, in which dear old Accrington Stanley are setting the pace 43 years after surrendering their League status. The only time they've been heard of since was in a television advert, in which an aspiring young footballer was told he'd only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley if he didn't drink his milk.

My own experience of post-Christmas crowds was to join the crawl down the A1 on Tuesday to be part of Headingley's second largest throng for a Rugby Union match, 11,601. Even if a thousand of those were Newcastle Falcons fans it could not explain the nose-to-tail traffic, which I assume was caused by the return home of southern-based workers who had sought a better quality of festivities. Hopefully next year they will decide they can't afford to miss the Maldon Mud Race.

WHAT an extraordinary innings by Durham skipper Mike Hussey in scoring his third century in five Tests. He was on 23 when Australia began the second day against South Africa on 239 for eight and Stuart MacGill was quickly out. Yet, with Glenn McGrath making 11 not out, Hussey went on to score 122.

When Durham signed him they thought, at 30, a Test career had somehow passed him by. Now they are resigned to him being in Bangladesh at the start of next season, but will pray that the threats and accusations which are again bedevilling Zimbabwean cricket will prevent Australia going there next September.