Former Australia captain, journalist and legendary broadcaster Richie Benaud has passed away. He was 84.
Benaud had been fighting a long battle with skin cancer and had also suffered from the after-effects of a serious car accident near his Coogee home in late 2013.
A leg spinner and aggressive batsman, Benaud claimed 248 Test wickets during his 16-year-long career in international cricket. At the time of his retirement from the game in 1964, he was Australia's leading Test bowler and had never lost a series as captain.
His captaincy achievements included the return of the Ashes to Australia after a gap of seven years in 1958-59, a key role in the epic 1960-61 home series against the West Indies that featured the first tied Test in Brisbane, and the conjuring of a miraculous victory over England at Manchester in 1961.
Benaud also made a huge impact on the game as a broadcaster in England and Australia, a trade he moved into having worked as a police reporter before his playing retirement. His spare, dry style and ability to add to the images on screen rather than talking over the top of them was distinctive.
He also played a key role in the establishment of World Series Cricket as a key organiser of the breakaway competition for Kerry Packer and then the host of Channel Nine's coverage in 1977. It was a role Benaud would hold for most of the next 48 years, while living an "endless summer" with his second wife Daphne that took in work for the BBC and then Channel Four in England during Australian winters.
Benaud was seldom given to expressing fervent opinion or to hark back to his playing days. A generation of Australian children grew up knowing him only as a television host and commentator, and he was often asked if he had ever been a player.
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A preference for cool detachment and observation meant that on the odd occasion when he did raise his voice in critique, it left a resonant impact.
Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards expressing his grief over Benaud's demise, said, "Our country has lost a national treasure. After Don Bradman, there has been no Australian player more famous or more influential than Richie Benaud. Richie stood at the top of the game throughout his rich life, first as a record-breaking leg-spinner and captain, and then as cricket's most famous broadcaster who became the iconic voice of our summer. He was an important influence in the formation of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in 1977, a climactic event at the time but one which has left a lasting, positive influence on the game.
"Away from the camera, he was a leader, mentor and positive influencer of an extraordinary number of cricketers. And despite his role as the treasured grandfather of the game, he remained deeply in touch with modern developments, embracing Twenty20 when others of older eras shunned it. His passing today marks a profound loss to our nation. Australian cricket and the game's legions of fans extend deepest sympathies to Richie's wife Daphne, brother John and the entire Benaud family at this sad time."
Benaud concluded his days as a commentator in England towards the end of the final day of the epic 2005 Ashes series, which also happened to be the last time Test cricket was broadcast on free to air television in Britain. He signed off to applause from around The Oval as England closed in on the Ashes.
