There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud. The chairman of selectors, Sir Donald Bradman, made it clear that he was keen to see Test cricket rescued from a period of dull introversion, and the two captains approached the series in a positive frame of mind. [6][46] Benaud had little prior leadership experience, and faced the task of recovering the Ashes from an England team which had arrived in Australia as favourites. ", said: "Farewell Richie Benaud. Coupled with his subtle variations in flight and angle of the delivery, he kept the batsman under constant pressure. I've got a black dress hanging inside,' Marcia said, laughing. Final respects: Greg Benaud (pictured) dressed for his father's funeral in April, for which Greg said Richie had given him some advice before he died to 'get a haircut, but don't take too much off'. [79] This was followed by three unproductive Tests which yielded only 5/360 and a win apiece. At one stage, New South Wales were six wickets down with less than 150 runs scored, but Benaud refused to attempt to defend for a draw. He was the mainstay in Australian cricket television commentary until the past two summers - a car accident in 2013 sidelined him before he announced in November last year that he was fighting skin cancer. Benaud scored 78 and 68 and took a total of 5/238, his dismissals being Davidson and frontline Test batsmen in a 121-run win. In 1952-53 Benaud played against South Africa, recording a duck and having his front teeth smashed while fielding at gully in the Sydney Test, which coincided with his honeymoon. [55] Benaud had less of an impact on the next two Tests, which Australia lost and drew, totaling 6/244. He appeared in Richie Benaud's Greatest XI, a video in which he chooses his own team. He helped the Australian team have the attitude where they wanted to win. Its one of those things in life: you live and learn as you go along.. Birth date: 6 October, 1930, Monday. Following his retirement from international cricket in 1964, Benaud became a highly regarded commentator on the game. Within hours of his death, Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister, offered Benauds family a state funeral. Shane Warne, Australia's record wicket-taker, made a particularly heartfelt contribution.external-link, "Dear Richie, you were a legend on all levels and rightly so too," said Warne. Benaud, born in Penrith, New South Wales, enjoyed a successful career as a wily leg-spin bowler and middle-order batsman. She and Richie Benaud had a second son Jeffrey in 1958, 'Dad said his cricketing commitments and distances for touring teams put strains on marriages.'. [31], The 196162 Australian season was purely a domestic one, with no touring international team. [66] With Davidson back, Australia won the final Test by two wickets,[67] after a controversial incident in which Australian wicketkeeper Wally Grout was not given out hit wicket when a bail was dislodged and the umpires did not notice. Despite this impairment to his bowling shoulder, his team played with an aggressive strategy leading them to lose only one Test match and no other matches during the tour, honouring his pre-series pledge. Newspaper reports said he drank champagne 'through a straw'. [6] At the start of the 194950 season, he was still in the Second XI, but when the Test players departed for a tour of South Africa soon afterwards,[7] vacancies opened up. Marcia Benaud pictured with elder son Greg, then aged 18 months, on Umina Beach in 1956. At the age of 83, he crushed two vertebrae when his 1963 Sunbeam vintage sports car hit a brick wall near his home in Coogee, Sydney. 1930 - 2015. In England, Richie met Daphne Surfleet, who had worked for the English cricket writer E. W. Swanton. [38] Early in the tour, when the team visited Timaru to pay a minor match, Benaud went to a pharmacy to see if he could get something to soothe his spinning-fingers, which had been torn by his spinning action for many years. His final commentary came near the end of the final day of the Fifth Test at the Oval. After his retirement from international cricket in 1964, he became a well-known commentator on the game. Reaction to the death of former Australian cricket captain and commentator Richie Benaud, known as the 'Voice of Cricket'. But I will be doing all sorts of, what I regard as, interesting things for Channel Nine on the cricketspecial features on the cricket". The first Test of the season, against the touring South Africans, saw high drama as Australia's left arm paceman Ian Meckiff was called for throwing by Colin Egar and removed from the attack by Benaud after one over. Shane Warne, Australia's record wicket-taker, made a particularly, said Benaud's passing was "a sad day for Australia", adding: "We have lost a cricketing champion and Australian icon. [49] Benaud produced an all-round performance of 46, 5/91 and 4/82 in the Fourth Test in Adelaide to take an unassailable 30 series lead and regain the Ashes,[50] before scoring 64 and match figures of 5/57 to help take the Fifth Test and a 40 series result. Overall he played in or commentated on approximately 500 Test matches, as he himself noted in one of his final interviews in Britain when asked if he would miss Test cricket. [7] Benaud scored his maiden first-class century, 117 against South Australia, in the next match, two years after falling short of the milestone by seven runs. [7] His only wicket was that of the all-rounder Trevor Bailey. AAP/Dean Lewins. The lawsuit against Richie Benauds estate involves complex trusts and superannuation funds both in Australia and overseas, the NSW Supreme court was told on Friday. The young leg spinner claimed Hassett in the second innings when a ball landed in a crack and skidded through onto his foot. His control was admirable, and when Benaud gets a batsman in trouble he rarely if ever gives him a loose one. He was known for his unbuttoned shirt, and raised eyebrows with his on-field exuberance. [6] In eight first-class matches after his Test campaign was over, Benaud added a further half-century in addition to the century against Pearce's XI, and took 22 more wickets, including 4/20 against the Gentlemen of England. [37] At this stage of his career, he had yet to perform consistently with bat and ball simultaneously, apart from his breakthrough series in the Caribbean. [29], Benaud's bowling reached a new level on the return leg of Australia's overseas tour, when they stopped in the Indian subcontinent in 195657 en route back to Australia. I made chicken soup and we had roast chicken and salad. His performances in South Africa in 1957-58 reinforced that belief. [78] Benaud started the series with seven wickets and a half century as the First Test in Brisbane was drawn. Richie Benaud died on April 10, 2015, after being diagnosed with skin cancer. He was buried on April 15 in a private funeral ceremony attended only by immediate family members. But that'll be no more television commentary". [100] He vacated the commentary booth when New Zealand was about to clinch a test victory at Lord's in 1999, allowing former New Zealand captain-turned-commentator Ian Smith to call the famous victory of his compatriots. '"[116], In October 2013, Benaud crashed his vintage 1965 Sunbeam Alpine into a wall while driving near his home in Coogee, a beachside suburb in Sydney's east. Richie commentated regularly during the 201112 season and was part of Nine's commentating team/roster. [80][81][82] Benaud returned to form with match figures of 5/142 and 57 in the Fifth Test at Sydney,[83] which ended in a draw when Benaud ordered Bill Lawry and Peter Burge to play out the last afternoon for a draw that would retain the Ashes. [5] Lou later moved to Parramatta region in western Sydney, and played for Cumberland. It worked at once, and Benaud used it thereafter. We'd have baked dinners on a Sunday at their houses.'. [7][11] He also put on 167 in a partnership with Alan Davidson, the first collaboration between the pair, who would later go on to lead Australia's bowling in the last five years of their career. [7], At this stage of his career, he had played 13 Tests with mediocre results. Some tedious contests had been inflicted on the watching public, with more to follow in the 1960s. [58] A further seven wickets from the captain in the Fifth Test saw Australia secure a draw and the series 21. Then came the 1953 tour, the first of three he was to make to England as a player. He led his country in 28 Tests and never lost a series as Australian captain. [89][90] His batting had been steady though with 231 runs at 33,[29] but his bowling was less so, taking 12 wickets at 37.42. [7] Hassett was known for his prowess against spin bowling, being the only batsman to score centuries in a match against the leg-spin of Bill O'Reilly, regarded as the finest bowler of his age. [4], Benaud was not a large spinner of the ball, but he was known for his ability to extract substantial bounce from the surface. [117], Benaud had last handed "Baggy green" caps to Simon Katich and Mitchell Starc when they made their test debut, but Benaud's own was lost early in his Test career, and former captainnow commentator and the Director of Cricket Australia, Mark Taylorwas to present the replacement cap to him at the semi-final of the 2015 Cricket World Cup between Australia and India at the SCG, but Benaud was too unwell to attend, and when the cap arrived at Channel 9 headquarters, it was the day before Benaud died. Three months later, Benaud married Daphne Surfleet and they embarked on a life of adventure in which Richie would cement his name in history and he and Daphne Benaud would forge an ironclad relationship that endured until his death last Friday. After scoring 60 and 37 and taking 1/60 in an Australian XI against the South Africans following the Test, he was selected for the Second Test. Benaud played international cricket from 1952 to 1964, and Australia never lost a series under his captaincy (28 games). After 28 X-rays showed nothing, it was finally diagnosed that the crater in his forehead had resulted in a skull fracture and he was sidelined for the remainder of the season,[6] since a second impact could have been fatal. What an innings. In 1958 he became Australia's Test captain until his retirement in 1964. Benaud had an ineffective match with the ball, taking 1/162. When live Test cricket disappeared from the BBC in 1999 he moved to Channel 4, and when terrestrial broadcasting ended in 2005 he refused to switch to pay TV. That TV commentary style lent itself to much mimicry, and his pronouncements, carefully rationed, were widely regarded as gospel. In the previous seasons when he and his team were at their peak, he had scored 636 runs at 31.8 with taken 108 wickets at 20.27 in eighteen Tests, averaging six wickets a match. Midway through the season, he played in Morris's XI in a testimonial match for Hassett, who captained the other team. [7], In the next Shield match against Victoria, led by Australian captain Lindsay Hassett, Benaud came in for attack. A veteran of 63 Test matches,. Australia's chances of winning looked remote when they reached tea at 6/109 with 124 runs still required with only the tailenders to follow. Greg said he did not wish to discuss his brother Jeff, who is married with no children and is believed to have worked in marketing. Benaud was born in Penrith, New South Wales, in 1930. Benaud went around the wicket and bowled into the footmarks, having Dexter caught behind and then Peter May bowled around his legs. Selected as a batsman who could bowl, he had totalled 309 runs at 15.45 without passing 50, and taken 23 wickets at 37.87 with only two four-wicket innings hauls. [124], Benaud was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 for services to cricket. This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 20:19. Elder son: Greg Benaud, 60, (pictured) at the public housing cottage he shares with his mother Marcia, who married Richie Benaud in 1953 and had two sons who would only see their famous father occasionally after their parents divorced, Glamorous: Marcia Benaud, in January 1953, following her marriage to Richie, after which the newlyweds went to the Adelaide Oval where the new Mrs Benaud is pictured, above, watching her husband play a Test against South Africa, Sons of the father: Richie Benaud pictured at the beach with his two sons, Jeffrey (left) and Greg (right) in the happier days of his marriage to first wife Marcia, when he was playing Test cricket for Australia, Young beauty: Marcia Lavender was a shorthand typist when she met cricketer Richie Benaud at a Sydney city accounting firm in the early 1950s and he went on to begin his Test career. Legendary Australian cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died. 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In an early tour match Benaud took his best first class innings haul of 1810187 for New South Wales against the MCC, which lost by an innings and 80 runs, the state's biggest win against the English team. After retiring, Benaud became a commentary icon, with the BBC and later for Channel 4 in the UK and also in his native Australia. Richard (Richie) Benaud, cricketer and commentator, died on April 10th, aged 84. Marcia Benaud, a gracious lady with a merry laugh and good sense of humour (pictured with son Greg, 60, at their Central Coast home) spoke with affection and sadness about her marriage to cricketing legend Richie, Greg Benaud (pictured), the elder son of cricketing legend Richie, was an off-break and then leg-spin bowler encouraged by his Dad. He was 84. The cricketer turned broadcaster had been battling skin cancer and recovering from the after-effects of a car accident . But some of them played below expectation, and Australias attack contained several bowlers whose actions were perceived as highly suspicious. His father Louis, a third-generation Australian of French Huguenot descent,[4] was a leg spinner who played for Penrith District Cricket Club in Sydney Grade Cricket, gaining attention for taking all twenty wickets in a match against St. Marys for 65. Benaud stated he would spend the Northern Hemisphere summer in Britain writing, and would continue working for the Nine Network in Australia. The reason for Richie Benaud death was stated that he died due to Skin cancer. In 1960, he made his first radio commentary in the United Kingdom at the BBC, after which he moved into television. John, who played in three Tests, was 13 years younger. Discover the real story, facts, and details of Richie Benaud. [6], In November 1948, at the age of 18, Benaud was selected for the New South Wales Colts, the state youth team. [92], During Benaud's captaincy, Australia did not lose a series, and became the dominant team in world cricket. The selectors persisted in Benaud despite his unproductive Test performances, selecting him for the squad for the 1953 Ashes tour of England. He justified their decision prior to the team's departure, scoring 167 not out and taking match figures of 7/137 for the touring team against a Tasmania Combined XI, his wickets including Test batsmen Miller, Ian Craig and Neil Harvey. By that summers end, with the beaten but popular West Indies having had a tickertape motorcade send-off in Melbourne, Richie Benauds own popularity was sealed. He said of her, "She improved my love of vegetables by introducing the phrase, 'You can't go out and play cricket until you have eaten all your vegetables. [107], Benaud commentated for the BBC TV highlights of the 200607 Ashes in Australia as part of his continuing commentary work for Australia's Nine Network. Marcia gave birth to their first son Greg in 1955, and Jeffery in 1958. [9] This was the only match he played for the second-string state team that summer. [47] Benaud's men won the Second Test,[48] before he took 5/83 and 4/94 in the drawn Third Test. He made 1 in the second before a last-wicket partnership between Davidson and Graham McKenzie of 98 yielded a defendable target. He loved winning. In 1963 he became the first player to complete the Test double of 200 wickets and 2,000 runs. [29][36] The first two seasons of the Benaud captaincy had been a resounding success, with Australia winning eight, drawing four and losing only one Test. However, cricketers like Shane Warne, Ian Chappell, Michael Clarke among several others visited his commemoration service on the same day. ', Marcia said she waited two years to get divorced, 'because of my sons.' [33] After taking four wickets in the drawn Second Test in Bombay,[34], Benaud bowled Australia to victory in the Third Test in Calcutta, sealing the series 20. He took up a journalism position with the News of the World,[98] beginning as a police roundsman before becoming a sports columnist. [60], Both men were noted for their hitting ability and viewed attack as their most effective chance of survival. They are Richie Benaud's secret first family, whose lives are far removed from the glittering sporting career the cricket legend led in the media spotlight before his death in April. [120][121][122], Prime Minister Tony Abbott offered his family a state funeral; however, his widow, Daphne, declined, respecting his wishes for a private funeral. [4] The First Test at Edgbaston was drawn with Benaud taking three wickets. It came from Jeff and I'm glad he told me because I didn't know why.'. 'He likes to keep his privacy.'. [88] His final two Tests saw no fairytale finish, yielding only four wickets and 55 runs. Former Australia captain and legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84. [56][57] He returned to form with 5/43 and 3/43 as India were defeated by an innings after being forced to follow on in the Fourth Test in Madras. Richie Benaud: Former cricketer and broadcaster dubbed 'The voice of cricket' dies, aged 84. Cause of Richie Benaud death. [31] He was unable to maintain the standards he had set in the West Indies, contributing little apart from the Lord's Test.