Benaud - not in best of health, but cricketing deeds will be remembered forever!

The Legendary cricketer and former Australian cricket captain Richie Benaud is not in the best of health these days and he is battling skin cancer and is under medical care.

Richie Benaud - the 84-year-old, made his illness public and has said that he was coping with it very well and the doctors are pleased and remarked that he was going along slowly.

Benaud is determined to come back into commentate soon, possibly early in the new year. He has said that progress is slow, but he has said that he was doing a lot of walking and he had derived a lot of benefits. He will only be too glad to come back into cricket commentaries since retiring from Test cricket in 1964.

So, Richie Benaud had all the qualifications of playing good cricket no sooner he came into playing Test cricket for Australia.

He was the first player to score 2,000 runs and take 200 wickets in Test matches and he came into this achievement playing for Australia in the game against South Africa at Brisbane cricket ground, Vulture Street, Woolboongabba, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on a Friday, December 6 in 1963.

First to achieve double

Richie Benaud, doyen of Australian television commentators, was the first player to achieve the double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in Test matches.

Benaud scored his maiden first-class century against South Australia. As a result, Benaud was picked for his debut Test-the fifth Test against the West Indies in 1951-52 in Sydney. Selected as a batsman, to Hassett allowed him to bowl only in the second innings. Leading opposition bastman Everton Weekes, edged Benaud in his first over, but Gil Langley dropped the catch. Benaud went on to dismiss Alf Valentine for his first Test wicket, conceding 14 runs.

After Benaud gathered momentum in his career and when Ian Craig fell ill at the start of the 1958-59 season, Benaud was pushed up to the captaincy ahead of vice-captain Neil Harvey. Harvey and Benaud had been captains of their respective states until Harvey moved in the same season for employment purposes from Victoria to New South Wales and became Benaud’s deputy.

Awarded OBE

It was in his 32nd Test against South Africa at St. George’s Park, Port Elizabeth that he achieved his first double. He was awarded the OBE and later named as one of “Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year” in 1962.

Benaud had made his Test debut ten years earlier on 25th January 1952 against the West Indies, and appeared in 63 Tests, scoring 2,201 runs with a top score of 122.

He took 248 wickets with his best figures being 7 for 42.

Benaud double-double occurred in the First Test of the 1963 – 1964 “rubber” against the Springboks. It was Benaud’s last Test match as Australia’s captain, before he relinquished the skipper’s job to Bob Simpson.

The second man to achieve the double-double was West Indies Sir Garfield Sobers and the third England’s Sir Ian Botham (in his 42nd Test). The match was also the Last Test match in which Richie Benaud captained Australia.

Highlights in cricket career

*Early in his career, he hit 100 runs against the West Indies in 78 minutes, the third fastest Test century of all time (in terms of minutes at the crease, not balls faced) and the second fastest by an Australian.

*Benaud was in charge for the inaugural 1960-61 Frank Worrell Trophy against the West Indies, a series that included the famous Tied Test.

*Benaud’s highest Test score of 122 was made against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1957 – 1958.

His best Test bowling effort of 7 for 72 was against India in Chennai in 1956-1957.

*He captained Australia in 28 Tests: 12 wins, 12 draws, 4 losses.

*In 1963 he became the first player to complete the Test double of 200 wickets and 2,000 runs. He is one of only 10 Australian cricketers to have scored more than 10,000 runs and taken over 500 wickets in first-class cricket.

*He ended his Test career in Sydney with statistics of 248 wickets (the Test record at that time) at 27.03 and 2,201 runs at 24.45.

A.C.d-De Silva