ECB mourns passing of former Australia captain and TV broadcaster Richie Benaud

The England and Wales Cricket Board has paid tribute to the late Richie Benaud, with ECB Chair Giles Clarke describing Benaud as “a true giant of the modern game.”

Benaud, who played 63 Test Matches for Australia between 1952 and 1964 and who led his country on 28 occasions, was one of the foremost cricketing figures of the post-war era, a leg-spinning all-rounder and a shrewd and innovative captain. After his retirement he became a hugely respected and widely revered television commentator – a figure synonymous with the sport through his commentaries for BBC Television, Channel Four and his native Channel Nine.

ECB Chairman Giles Clarke said: “This is a very sad day. Cricket has lost perhaps its greatest advocate and someone who was a true giant of the modern game. Richie was a marvellously talented cricketer who in the early part of his career gave much to the Australian team as a player and a leader. But he will always, above all, be remembered as one of cricket’s most influential and authoritative voices; a supremely gifted broadcaster, journalist and author.

“It is humbling to think that Richie was involved in more than 500 Test Matches as a player or a commentator. Few could match the breadth of knowledge and insight he brought to the commentary box; and all leavened by his marvellous dry wit which millions came to know and love both in this country and across the world.”

ECB CEO Tom Harrison added: “Richie was a one-man cricketing institution; a peerless broadcaster and a master of his craft. His distinctive style of commentary was much loved, often imitated, but never surpassed.

“Our sporting summers will never be quite the same without him in this country – and how right and fitting it was that his final words of live commentary on British television coincided with the conclusion of arguably the greatest Test series of them all – the 2005 Ashes.  Our sympathies go out to Richie’s wife Daphne and to all his many friends and colleagues across the cricketing world.”