The unforgetable Benaud

by A.C De Silva

The great star passes away ... The most famous voice in the cricket commentary box is no more and that person was loved and admired by many cricketers the world over. Richie Benaud is no longer with us all. He died recently.

A handful of broadcasters have brought as much wide - ranging authority to their opinions as has Richie Benaud. He played in or worked at more than 500 Test matches. It is a unique achievement, one unlikely to be marked by all those young speakers who are bound to be on Radio and T.V. Commentaries.

Nobody in the history of the game has so perfectly combined the playing and the watching of cricket. He played his first Test match in 1952, retired 53 Tests later in 1964 with a then-record 246 wickets and, along the way, as well as captaining his country with calm authority, he slipped almost unnoticed into the BBC commentary box, on radio first in 1960, three years later on television. So effortlessly has he shuttled back and forth between the hemispheres since that he has not endured a winter in 42 years.

As a result of his excellence with bat, ball and microphone, wherever Benaud moves in cricket, he created awe among young and old. It is respect bordering on the religious. If cricket has a Pope, his name is Richie.

Genuine affection for Benaud

There is genuine affection for him too, as if he belongs to all of us. In a way, he does, much as W.G. Grace, Ranji, Bradman or Sobers are forever the universal property of the game.

In recent times one would venture to call Ritchie Benaud cricket's finest critic if not its writer, but if one begins to compare him with men like the great Ray Robinson, Jack Fingleton and Dick Whitington, all now sadly departed, my claim will be difficult to substantiate, but it will be equally difficult to refute. In all his writing Benaud has displayed courage, the same courage he showed as a cricketer and captain, that has now been stamped on his forthright views of the game.

So this book of 258 pages goes on, and the picture suggested rather than drawn, is of the characters which international cricket breeds both in side and outside boundaries.

Ritchie rendered outstanding services

Ritchie has rendered an outstanding service to the game. He surveys in retrospect the great personalia of international cricket of the past four decades. Few men are better qualified for the task and few could have done it so well. He made it a point of knowing his men off the field as well as on it. It is this which gives vitality and redolence to his survey.

The player of cricket and the lover of cricket, and even those who played but little, or not at all will enjoy and admire "Ritchie Benaud's Reflection" if the world and their mood permits, the work of a man who is the perfect blend of the sportsman, journalist, and gentleman.

What marks out Benaud's commentary is not just his absolute economy of worlds, but his unerring eye for a story. He was thinking like a journalist when he became the first Australian

Captain to allow pressmen into the dressing room at the end of a match. The invitation had one condition: no conversation within the sanctum was to be directly reported. The Australian Board were horrified and told their Captain so.

Benaud wanted to do things properly

The tale tells much about Benaud's ambition and his tenacity, even more about his desire to do things properly. He wanted to be accepted as a journalist, so he needed to do the training. It was the same with television. At the end of the 1956 Ashes tour, he enrolled in a three-week television course run by the BBC. He was sent to shadow Peter O' Sullevan at Newbury's autumn meeting. "Follow me and don't say a word," O'Sullevan said, "and then we'll have a beer later and talk about it."

In time, Benaud's much mimicked accent became as much a part of a cricketing summer as O'Sullevan's mellow commentary on a Saturday afternoon.

The importance of organization and preparation, Benaud reflects, were the skills he learnt those two days, as well as a love of the horses. A summer spent listening to the gentle rumbles of Henry Longhurst at The Open and Dan Maskell at Wimbledon furthered his education. Longhurst's a simple mantra - "don't speak unless you can add to the picture" - has never been more tested than during the past month of an Ashes Series Benaud regards as the best he has seen.

Take the final overs of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge and the growing possibility of an Australian victory. The audience of more than eight million could not have been in safer hands. There was no need for embellishment or flourish, as Benaud well knew. "All I had to say was the number of runs to win, that Australia had three wickets to take and that if England did win, Australia would have to win at The Oval to retain the Ashes," he says. I just kept reminding people of those facts because they were coming in second by second wanting to know what the situation was. The whole thing revolved around not saying anything, which suits me anyway.'

Australia have turned a fabulous performance

When Ashley Giles duly turned Shane Warne away for the winning runs, Benaud said: "Australia have turned in a fabulous performance, Warne and Lee have been simply magnificent, but millions of spectators here and all over the world have seen England go 2-1 up in the series." Then the final masterstroke: :Giles finish not out seven, Hoggard not out eight." Do you know which achievement Benaud holds dearest in a broadcasting career that began at Old Trafford in 1963?

"I taught myself to say 'Australia' or 'the Australians' Not once in 42 years have I used the word 'we'."

The final day of the fifth Test will mark Benaud's farewell to commentary in his second home, a matter of conscience as much as age, though his 75th birthday is only a month away. Perfect timing was always one of his gifts.

He is, he says simply, a "free to air" man and with the controversial transfer of Test coverage to Sky next summer, Benaud has no terrestrial air time to fill.

Test Match Special would benefit from his gravitas, though you cannot see a man as serious about his cricket. Waffling on about chocolate cakes and red buses. It will be a surprise if Benaud, as he devoutly wishes, sneaks off air without a fanfare.

Breathtaking brilliance

No more perfect finale could have been scripted with an Ashes series of breathtaking brilliance handing in the balance and the whole nation poised to honour a new era of English cricket. "The only series I've watched that comes close was in 1981, with Boham being sacked as Captain, Mike Brearley coming back and the Old Trafford Test," he says. "But the players on both sides are better than in 1981".

Had he been behind the microphone and not playing that day, you can be sure Richie Benaud would have been the coolest man in the commentary box. "Australia win a thrilling series 2-1, Mackay not out 3, Martin not out 1". And if England bring home the Ashes at last, you can be guaranteed two things; first, that Benaud will be at the heart of the action and, secondly, that not for one moment will be miss a beat.