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Richie Benaud typified the spirit of cricket

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
9th April, 2015
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Impersonation is the sincerest form of flattery. Has there been a sports commentator in the world more impersonated than Richie Benaud?

His beige jacket. His refined appearance. His dulcet, distinctive voice and his laconic wit provided Billy Birmingham (aka The Twelfth Man) with enough material to make his own career out of impersonating the great man.

Benaud’s clipped delivery style, “marvellous”, “chew for twenty chew” was iconic.

Benaud was so popular that Mick Jagger and former British prime minister John Major were prominent members of a public and eventually successful campaign to have him reappointed to the commentary box in England in 1999.

Essential to Channel 9, network boss David Gyngell even proposed that Benaud commentate this summer from his Coogee home.

So what made Benaud so popular?

He better than anyone else in the sport, typified the spirit of cricket.

In the late 1990s, two distinguished Melbourne Cricket Club members (and ex-England captains), Ted Dexter and Lord (Colin) Cowdrey, sought to enshrine the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ in the game’s Laws. This would remind players of their responsibility for ensuring that cricket is always played in a truly sportsmanlike manner.

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When the current ‘Code of Laws’ was introduced in 2000, it included for the first time, a ‘Preamble on the Spirit of Cricket’. As it says: “Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the ‘Spirit of the Game’. Any action which is seen to abuse this Spirit causes injury to the game itself.”

The spirit of the game involves showing respect for your opponents, the role of the umpires and the game’s traditional values.

To indulge in cheating or any sharp practice, to dispute an umpire’s decision by word, action or gesture or to direct abusive language towards an opponent or umpire, much like the present Australian team, is damaging to cricket.

Benaud must surely loath the antics of the current Australian team. One of his great moments was his scathing criticism of the ‘underarm’ in 1981.

Benaud always conducted himself with the honourable sentiments of the spirit of cricket in mind.

As a player, Benaud appeared in 63 Test matches between 1952 and 1964. He was the first man from any nation to score 2000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets. He is one of only ten Australians to have scored more than 10,000 runs and taken over 500 wickets in first-class cricket.

Benaud scored three Test centuries and once hit 11 sixes in a first class innings, which was an Australia record at the time.

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As captain he led Australia to four consecutive series victories, beginning with a 4-0 demolition of Peter May’s 1958-59 tourists (Benaud took 31 wickets in the five tests).

He also never lost a series as captain.

Possibly his greatest personal triumph on the field was at Old Trafford, Manchester in 1961, when he single-handedly snatched the Ashes from England when they were coasting to victory.

Benaud brought himself on to bowl around the wicket, a bold move as he had taken 0-80 in the first innings.

Pitching the ball into the rough made by the bowlers’ footmarks, he immediately had the rampant Ted Dexter caught behind, then bowled Peter May around his legs for a duck.

Benaud took 6-70 as England lost nine wickets for 51. Australia won by 54 runs.

Benaud played his cricket with aggression, dignity, innovation and flair. The 1961 the West Indies were incredibly popular and Benaud and the West Indies’ captain Frank Worrell resolved to play exciting, fair, results-driven cricket – a stark contrast to the style of cricket throughout most of the fifties.

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With his background in journalism, Benaud always understood the importance of publicity and the media. He was the first Test captain to invite reporters into the dressing room for after-match press conferences and later became the games most respected commentator.

Benaud was a sharp analyst who shared engaging anecdotes with his audience.

He made silence say more than anybody.

In this day and age of screaming hyperbole, Benaud stood out because he could often go an entire over without saying anything. He added to the picture with an economy of effort which is a tough skill for any commentator to master.

Then of course there was the humour. In no particular order here are my five favourite Richie Benaud lines.

“The hallmark of a great captain is the ability to win the toss, at the right time.”

“The slow-motion replay doesn’t show how fast the ball was really travelling.”

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On an Ian Botham six: “Don’t bother looking for that, let alone chasing it… That’s gone straight into the confectionary stall and out again.”

“When my hair is long enough to be cut, I go to my wife’s hairdresser, and she generally pays for it.”

During a rain delay at the Sydney Cricket ground Simon O’Donnell and Benaud were killing time in the studio when O’Donnell poised a trivia question to Benaud, the exchange went something like this.

Simon: “Richie, Who bowled Australia out for their lowest score in an ODI at the SCG?”

Richie: “Was it the West Indies?”

Simon: “No it wasn’t the West Indies.”

Richie: “What about New Zealand. I remember Hadlee bowled a great spell here.”

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Simon: “No Riche, it wasn’t the Kiwis… One more guess. Who bowled Australia out for their lowest score in an ODI at the SCG.”

Richie: “Ah… was it Luxemburg.”

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