The cricketing world and Australia lost a true legend as Richie Benaud passed away in his sleep, aged 84.
I first heard of Richie Benaud when I was a young boy in 1968. My Nanna had bought me a cricket book for Christmas called ‘Calypso Cricket’ and it was all about the history of West Indies cricket.
In this book was a chapter dedicated to the famous ‘Tied Test’ of 1960. I read that chapter over and over again. I learned of all the heroes like Garry Sobers and Alan Davidson, and of the captains, Richie Benaud and Frank Worrell. I was intrigued by photos of Benaud bowling with his shirt unbuttoned, as a young Kerry O’Keeffe was doing the same thing for NSW.
I asked my Dad about Richie Benaud and he told me “great cricketer, great captain, good batsman and best leg spinner since O’Reilly.” I barely understood one word that he said, but I asked him, “what was a leg spinner?”
So he took me outside and showed me the leg spinner action with a tennis ball. I was wrapt, and practised it against the shed wall for hours. I saved up enough money to buy another cricket book written by Richie, in which he talked about bowling ‘wrong’uns’ and ‘flippers’.
My Dad couldn’t help me there so I practised alone. One day, I got the wrong’un, and was mesmerised when the ball turned back to the leg side.
Richie Benaud had the good fortune to have a father who bowled leg spin, and he was a good student. Without going heavily into statistics it is a fact that Richie was Australia’s leading wicket taker for nearly twenty years with 248 wickets. How fitting was it that he was in the commentary box when Dennis Lillee broke his record.
Remember too, the legacy that he left. Just as he admired O’Reilly, Grimmett and the greats before him, he indirectly inspired Shane Warne to be the great spinner he was.
He also hit a couple of centuries for Australia. One of them has a back story. He was in the West Indies and when he went in to bat, told his skipper at the other end that he had just heard that his wife (first) was very ill back in Australia, and he couldn’t concentrate. The skipper, Ian Johnson, said “don’t worry, just have a lash”. Richie scored a century in 78 minutes.
For all of that, he is best remembered as a captain.
His first series was against England, and Australia were expected to be slaughtered. They forget to tell Richie as Australia won four–nil.
He instigated the team dinner before each test, he encouraged every man to offer his thoughts on tactics at the dinner. He was ‘the Boss’ on the field, but very open to input from the likes of Neil Harvey.
He always said his greatest achievement was keeping Davidson bowling, when he was begging for the massage table. For the uninitiated, ‘Davo’ was the Mitchell Johnson of the day, and there was no real backup paceman.
Remarkably, Richie never lost a test series as captain.
Richie was also very intelligent man, and knew that a cricketer had a limited career, so he became a journalist. Not like today, where any ex-cricketer is an instant journalist – he did the rounds as a newspaper reporter and even did a television presenters course with the BBC. Remember, television only came to Australia in 1957 and he did this in 1961.
He often spoke of the best lesson he learned, which was “if you can’t add to the picture on the screen, then don’t say anything”. This, of course, became his trademark, where the pregnant pause made viewers watch the cricket rather than be told about it.
Richie was the face of World Series Cricket, as he strongly believed cricketers were vastly under rewarded for their trade. Few Australians would have known that he was a commentator in England for many years previously. Still, in Australia, he was reborn to a new generation.
With WSC and the advent of one day cricket and coloured clothing, cricket was reinvigorated in Australia. Richie, along with Bill Lawry and Tony Greig became as famous as the players. Of course he became the stuff of more legend when The Twelfth Man came into being.
It is understood that Richie wasn’t overly impressed with Billy Birmingham’s work (especially the swearing) but we all knew it was a work of love, not just a piss take.
Is there anyone out there today not quietly whispering “Two for two, two, two…” and smiling, even on such a sad day?
The sure sign of greatness is when you are gone – since Richie stop commentating the Channel 9 box has not been the same. It’s not being critical of the current crop, but there was only one Richie Benaud.
So vale, Richie Benaud. I still try and bowl wronguns in the backyard, but I never managed to bowl a flipper.
I might just sneak out and give it a go.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Marcus Stoinis produced his first IPL century and it was a beauty. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to finish off the Lucknow Super…
Xavier Bartlett has been permission to extend his cricketing education with a spell of T20s in England, playing in the Blast competition for Kent…
Three-Test spinner Matthew Kuhnemann has signed with Tasmania in a bid for red-ball game time ahead of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka next summer.…
Last week, you read about the Matt XI, a compilation of the best cricketers ever to represent the name Matt. And to be fair,…
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
