The legendary former captain of Australia Richie Benaud who died of cancer yesterday was 84. First of the great all-rounders that his country produced was also the first in history to complete the double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in Test cricket.

Having retired from the game he continued to be in the limelight as a journalist and commentator for BBC, Channel Nine, Channel four and Five. During his playing days he had gone through a course and trained as a radio broadcaster at the BBC which later took him into television where he excelled in his knowledge of the game and its description.

His forefathers had come to Australia in 1838 from a village called ‘Benaud’ in France. His father a school teacher and a first-grade cricketer passed on his interest in the game to him and his brother John who also played Test cricket for his country.

My first look at Benaud was in the 1956 Test against Pakistan at the National Stadium Karachi which Pakistan won by nine wickets. Benaud took only one wicket in the match but he did score 56 in the second innings, the only Australian to do so in the match in which Fazal Mahmood took 13 wickets for 114 runs.

From mid-sixties I followed his exploits as an all-rounder of the time later when I entered the media boxes of England and Australia as a journalist I had the privilege of his company almost every year.

Tall and good looking Benaud, son of a school teacher and a first-grade cricketer having come into limelight in early fifties dominated the game as a useful right-handed batsman and a right-arm wrist spinner who could bowl a googly and a flipper with as much ease.

As a columnist and commentator he excelled like no other in the profession. He was highly critical when situation demanded and occasionally even miserly in praise when it came to making comments on cricket in the sub-continent.

In his autobiography and in some of his other books he accused Pakistan cricket and ground authorities of tampering with the matting wickets in Pakistan saying that ‘when Australians batted the groundsmen would not tighten the matting and left it loose so that Fazal could bowl his leg-cutters.’

He was referring to the Karachi Tests of 1956 and later of 1959-60 when he led Australia to Pakistan and the American President General Dwight. D Eisenhower visited the Test. While being introduced to the teams, Eisenhower was taken aback when Benaud, having noticed the Pakistan team blazer that the president was wearing, told him, ‘I see you joined the Pakistan team.’ Before the president could say anything in response, Benaud immediately gifted his Australian cap to him.

Benaud also was the man behind TV tycoon Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket as an adviser. He also was responsible of devising the controversial rain-rule that he made for international matches which in fact ruined South Africa’s World Cup 1992 party when they were asked to chase 22 runs in one ball against England in the semis.

In 1991 when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years of confinement at Robben Island he was one of the invitees along with Sunil Gavaskar, Sir Garfield Sobers, me and few others to attend a banquet at Johannesburg organised by Dr. Ali Bacher to celebrate the merger of the black and white cricket boards into United Cricket Board of South Africa.

In the last few years since he quit BBC in 1999 when rights were taken over by Channel Four, he never really looked the same old smart looking Benaud I had come to know.

The last I met him was during the 2013 summer at Lord’s when I noticed him sitting a few yards away from me in the press box, not smartly dressed as he used to be. I said hello to him and asked if he could sign an autograph one of his photographs for my friend Afzal Ahmed in Pakistan. Benaud declined saying, ‘I do not sign autographs in commentary box’, which sounded a bit odd since he was sitting in the press box and not in commentary box. I was shocked by his response and realised that he was not the real Benaud that I had known for years.

He also claimed to have seen 500 Tests including the ones in which he played, 63 of them, scoring 2,201 runs at an average of 24.45 and took 248 wickets at an average of 27.03.

He was a star no doubt.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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