Richie Benaud biography
Richie Benaud, byname of Richard Benaud, (born October 6, 1930, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia—died April 10, 2015, Sydney), cricketer who's greatest remembered as one in every of Australia’s most-imaginative captains. He served as captain of the Australian nationwide staff from 1958 to 1963, throughout which era Australia by no means misplaced a Test (worldwide) sequence. After his retirement from skilled cricket, Benaud moved on to a extremely profitable broadcasting profession and was revered in each Australia and England for his cricket commentary, incomes widespread recognition as “the voice of cricket.”
Benaud started taking part in organized aggressive cricket on the age of six and made his debut in first-class cricket on the age of 18. He first appeared in Test matches in 1951. Benaud developed a status as a tremendous leg-spin bowler in addition to a superb batsman and fielder. He additionally grew to become recognized for his clever and energetic play.
During Australia’s Test towards the West Indies in 1955, Benaud displayed his batting prowess, recording a century (100 runs in a single innings) in 78 minutes—at the moment the third quickest century in Test competitors—en path to ending with a rating of 121. By the time of his appointment in 1958 as captain of the Australian nationwide staff, Benaud had additionally emerged as one of many recreation’s prime bowlers. In the 1958–59 Ashes sequence, he took 31 wickets, main his staff to a 4–0 sweep of England. Australia retained the Ashes in 1961 and in 1962–63. During the interval of Benaud’s captaincy, his charismatic management and shrewd information of the game helped rekindle public curiosity in cricket.
Benaud was chosen Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1962. The following yr he grew to become the primary participant within the historical past of cricket to attain the Test match double of two,000 runs and 200 wickets. He retired from skilled cricket in 1964 with totals of two,201 runs and 248 wickets in 63 Tests (28 as captain). In home cricket, he performed with New South Wales in 73 matches (32 as captain), scoring 3,749 runs and taking 266 wickets.
After his retirement as a participant, Benaud remained one of the crucial seen and influential figures within the sport, showing as a cricket commentator on British tv till 2005 and on Australian tv till 2013. He additionally wrote a number of books on cricket, together with Richie Benaud’s Way of Cricket (1962), A Tale of Two Tests (1962), The Appeal of Cricket (1995), and My Spin on Cricket (2005). He grew to become a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1961. In 2007 Benaud was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.