Former Australia Cricket Captain Richie Benaud died

Richie Benaud, the former Australian cricket captain and legendary commentator died in Sydney on 10 April 2015. He died after fighting a long battle with skin cancer. He was 84.

Richie Benaud in Cricket
Benaud born in Penrith, New South Wales, in 1930 was an Australian Test cricket all-rounder and a pioneering leg-spin bowler. He became Australia's Test captain in 1958. He retired as a captain in 1964. After retirement from international cricket, he became a highly regarded commentator of the game.

Test cricket: He played his debut match on 25 January 1952 against West Indies at Sydney Cricket Ground. He played his last Test match on 12 February 1964 against South Africa at Sydney Cricket Ground. In his test career, he played 63 Tests, 28 as captain and never lost a series as Australian captain. He scored 2201 runs with top score of 122. He took 248 wickets.

Benaud was the first player to score 2000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets.

First-class cricket: Benaud took 945 wickets in 259 first-class matches and made 11719 first-class runs, scoring 23 centuries at an average of 36.50.

Richie Benaud as a cricket commentator
After retirement, he pursued his career in journalism and broadcasting. After an impressive playing career, he became even better known as a prolific author, columnist and commentator on cricket.

He made his first radio commentary in 1960 at the BBC from UK, after which he moved into television. His final commentary in England came during the 2005 Ashes series but he continued to work for Channel Nine in Australia until 2013.

Honours and Awards conferred on Benaud
• In 1961, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to cricket
• In 1985, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of fame
• In 2007, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
• In 2009, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

Benaud also wrote several books and they were
• The Way of Cricket (1961)
• A Tale of Two Tests (1962)
• Spin Me a Spinner (1963)
• The New Champions (1966)
• Willow Patterns (1969)
• Test Cricket (1982)
• World Series Cup Cricket 1981–82 (1982)
• The Hottest Summer (1983)
• The Ashes 1982–83 (1983)
• Benaud on reflection (1984)
• The Appeal of Cricket (1995)
• Anything But (1998) was his autobiography
• My Spin on Cricket (2005)
• Over But Not Out (2010)