', Marcia said she waited two years to get divorced, 'because of my sons.' [29][36][54] Benaud made a strong start to the series against India, taking 3/0 in the first innings of the First Test in Delhi, before a 5/76-second innings haul secured an innings victory. [61], The Test was tied when Solomon ran out Ian Meckiff with a direct hit. Cause of Richie Benaud death. Following his retirement from international cricket in 1964, Benaud became a highly regarded commentator on the game. The death of Richie Benaud has reverberated around the world after news broke on Friday morning of the former Australia cricket captain's death at the age of 84. Link to video: Richie Benaud became a household name for a whole new generation when he moved from the oval to the commentary box. Richie Benaud - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) How Prince Harry's chat with guru who compared Hamas terrorists to Jews who battled the Nazis has appalled JAN MOIR: Goodbye Ken, the world always seemed safer with you on the airwaves, Abstaining from masturbating RAISES risk of anxiety, depression and erectile dysfunction, study warns. Benaud, Richard (Richie) (1930-2015) by Kersi Meher-Homji. She remained in the Beecroft house as the boys grew up, seeing their father 'now and again for birthdays'. and "That's stumps and time for a glass of something chilled". Four years previously he had been hit in the face while batting for New South Wales 2nd XI in Melbourne. [10] He had more success with the bat, scoring 93 and narrowly missing a century against South Australia. His last goodbye was interrupted by Glenn McGrath taking Kevin Pietersen's wicket; Benaud simply wove his description of the dismissal into what he was already saying. 'He likes to keep his privacy.'. Then, within the year, Richie Benaud became captain of his country. Richie Benaud: Private funeral for cricket legend - BBC News In the case of the latter, comedian Billy Birmingham's impersonations of Benaud on The Twelfth Man comedy recordings have become very successful, spanning more than twenty years. Rich couldn't make it and I'll always be grateful that Mr Menzies said, "well your wife might like to go".'. In 1958 he became Australia's Test captain until his retirement in 1964. '"[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. Although both sons played cricket at the private boys school they attended, Barker College in Sydney's northern suburbs, neither went on to play representative cricket after school like their father and grandfather. It was something he shouldn't have done. The decisive victory came in the fourth Test, at Old Trafford, when Benauds 6 for 70 and an unlikely Australian 54-run victory shamed England, who fell from 150 for one to 201 all out. He was recalled for a match against the Englishmen. Richie Benaud dead | The Australian Marcia said that from time to time when people inquired about her name, she would quietly respond that yes, she was the first Mrs Richie Benaud. In 1963 he became the first player to complete the Test double of 200 wickets and 2,000 runs. [62] He took 4/107 in a seven-wicket victory in Melbourne,[63] before the West Indies levelled the series with a 22-run win in Sydney. Five days later, he fronted Wesley Methodist Church in Strathfield, Sydney, still bearing the stitched wound. [4] The First Test at Edgbaston was drawn with Benaud taking three wickets. He still managed to say I do quite firmly. [58] A further seven wickets from the captain in the Fifth Test saw Australia secure a draw and the series 21. 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. His selection was frequently questioned in those early years, when much other flowering talent was evident in domestic cricket. On a green pitch which was struck by a downpour on the opening day, Benaud's spin was not used by Arthur Morris, and he failed to make an impression with the bat in his only innings, scoring only two. I know Mum found it difficult to live on ten pounds a week. His final commentary in England came during the 2005 Ashes series, but he continued to work for Channel Nine in Australia until 2013. [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. Doctors told him he was lucky: it could have broken his cheekbones, jaw or removed his eyesight if it had hit any of the surrounding areas. There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud. 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. Benaud had been battling skin cancer and recovering from the after effects of a car accident suffered . Benaud went around the wicket and bowled into the footmarks, having Dexter caught behind and then Peter May bowled around his legs. In his later career, he added the flipper, a combination of the googly and top spinner which was passed to him by Bruce Dooland. Read about our approach to external linking. Now an 85-year-old pensioner, Marcia Benaud hadn't seen Richie Benaud since the 1970s when he was contesting the maintenance paid to support her and their sons. This was exhibited in the 196061 Test series against the visiting West Indians, in which the grounds were packed to greater levels than they are today despite Australia's population doubling since then. Greg Benaud said he and brother Jeffrey met Australian Test players, such as Alan Davidson and Arthur Morris, who his father invited round for team meetings in the garage of the Beecroft home, 'starting off with Davo leading a prayer and then they would discuss tactics and show 8mm home moves of games'. 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. Richie Benaud was an all-time great all-rounder cricketer, a crafty leg-spinner who captured 248 wickets in 63 Tests, an attacking lower-order batsman who hit one of the fastest Test centuries, a brilliant gully . Listen to impressionist Rory Bremner paying tribute to Richie Benaud. [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. [7] He was selected for an Australian XI match against England, in what was effectively a trial for Test selection, but suffered a chipped bone in his thumb. What an innings. Richie Benaud, ace all-rounder, captain, journalist, and doyen of commentators, passed away on April 4, 2015. Then came the 1953 tour, the first of three he was to make to England as a player. Wonderful cricketer, great captain, a master craftsman commentator and top man. His career in television then took off, while his contract with the News of the World was to proceed for half a century until the paper closed in 2011. He wrote a number of books, rather serious works written with little flourish, and there were two books about him, one by AG Moyes and a later study by Mark Browning. "[39], After a break in the international calendar of a year, the 195758 tour to South Africa heralded the start of a phase of three international seasons when Benaud was at his peak. [31] In 1967, he married his second wife, Daphne Surfleet, who had worked for the English cricket writer E. W. Benaud was born in Penrith, New South Wales, in 1930. 6 October 1930 City of Penrith: Date of death: 10 April 2015 Sydney: Manner of death: natural causes; Cause of death: cancer; Country of citizenship: Australia; Country for sport: Australia; Educated at: Parramatta High School; Occupation: cricketer; journalist; His record reads 12 wins, 11 draws, one tie, and four losses from 28 Tests in charge of Australia. There will never be another Richie Benaud. She said that after their split, Richie Benaud had preferred to keep his past quiet and that she was not encouraged to call 'Coogee', the name she used to refer to Richie and Daphne Benaud when they were in Sydney at their apartment. However, he did not have much success in his five games, taking only five wickets at 54.00. [16] He suffered a smashed gum and a severely cut top lip when a square cut by John Waite in the Third Test against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground hit him in the face while he was fielding at short gully. 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. Marcia Benaud kept her surname 'for the sake of my sons. 'Not as much as when we were children. A strong England party, led by Peter May, were widely expected to retain the Ashes. It was another lean series with the ball, Benaud's 17 wickets costing 40.47, the third consecutive series where his wickets cost more than 30. 2. Richie Benaud dead: Australia mourns loss of cricketing great [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. Within the year he had spun his way to a further 47 wickets in eight Tests in Pakistan and India, and all was set for what was perceived as a world championship contest against the visiting West Indies team. Benaud also used to live in Coraki, NSW. Witch, Harridan, Harpy, and new insults like Karen and Terf. He ended with 121 and took four wickets in the match as Australia won by an innings and took the series 30. [77], 196263 saw an English team under Dexter visit Australia. When, a few months later in England, Benaud took veteran Ray Lindwalls advice and bowled his leg-spin around the wicket into the rough, when all seemed lost in the Old Trafford Test, his wicket-taking that afternoon ensured that Australia retained the Ashes and raised the captain close to sainthood in the estimation of his team and his country. 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. We will remember him forever. He was the accompaniment of an Australian summer. 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. In 1961 he was made an OBE for services to cricket. [4] Benaud took 5/72 and scored 43 in the First Test,[86] but then injured himself in a grade match, so Bob Simpson captained the team for the Second Test and won the match in Benaud's absence. Richie Benaud's 90th birth anniversary celebrated in new Cricket Abbott described him as the voice of cricket. But that extraordinary five-match encounter produced electrifying batsmanship, and bowling that was less concerned with shutting the game down than keeping it moving. First wife: The former Marcia Lavender (pictured) married Richie Benaud in 1953, had two boys and divorced in 1967 and at the time of the cricketing legend's death in April had not seen him - except on TV - for 39 years. 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. Richie Benaud's Death - Cause and Date - The Celebrity Deaths But I will be doing all sorts of, what I regard as, interesting things for Channel Nine on the cricketspecial features on the cricket". [7] However, this was not enough to ensure his selection in the First Test, where he was made 12th man. Fred Trueman with 216 Test wickets and Brian Statham with 229 were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser.