Richie Benaud - The next great cricketer after Sir Donald Bradman

These days when cricket fans are asked about all-rounders, automatically the names of Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Jacques Kallis, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja strike everyone’s mind. Unfortunately only some of the present generation fans know the name of Sir Richie Benaud, who is regarded as the first genuine all-rounder in the history of cricket.

Richie Benaud was one of the five players recognized for the Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1962.

In the year 1948, when Sir Donald Bradman got out for a golden duck and retired with an average of 99.94, an eighteen year old boy was selected for the New South Wales youth team – an all-rounder who would also go on to become the greatest captain of his time.

Taking into consideration his consistent performances for New South Wales, he was finally selected for the West Indies Vs Australia series in 1952-53 season. In a tour match against West Indies, Richie Benaud consolidated his New South Wales team which was seven wickets down with a score of less than 100 on the board. He anchored a century partnership, scoring 43.

Benaud had a very quiet start to his cricketing career, scoring with an average of just around 30 and taking one or two wickets regularly in every match. It was from 1955, when he started to develop into a fine all-rounder.

In 1955, Australia toured West Indies and Richie Benaud’s all-round capability came into the fore in the third test at Georgetown. In the first innings, West Indies were bowled out for a paltry 182 with the leg spinner taking 4 wickets. He scored his first international half-century and anchored the Australian innings to a decisive 75 run lead which would ultimately lead to a convincing Australian win. In the fifth test, he scored his first century and took 3 wickets in the second innings to provide an innings victory for the Aussies.

In the 1956 Lords’ Test, Benaud scored 97 runs quickly and took 3 wickets in the match. Other than this performance, the series didn’t prove well for the leg spinner. At Madras, he took full advantage of the turning pitch and took 8 wickets in the test match to contribute in another convincing victory. This series was a special one for Richie as he produced another magical performance with the ball in the Calcutta test. No team went past 200, as spinners proved vital with the ball. While Ghulam Ahmed took 7 wickets in the first innings, it was the Aussie leg spinner who replied strongly by taking 6 wickets in the first and 5 wickets in the second innings.

The 1957/58 South Africa series showed how well he could perform both with bat and ball. He scored 329 runs and took 29 wickets in the 5 tests he played there. It involved four 5-wickets haul and two centuries, both in Johannesburg.

Career as a captain

Richie Benaud became the 28th captain for Australia and inspiringly led his team to a 4-0 victory in the 1958/59 Ashes series. The captain was much better with the ball but during the Adelaide test he again showed his all-round capability by scoring 46 in the first innings and taking 9 wickets in the match.

His next tour to the subcontinent was another victorious one as he led his side to series victories in Pakistan and India. He regularly took wickets and increased chances of his team’s victory. Richie did sometimes come up the batting order when needed and consolidated the innings.

Tied Test

Richie Benaud said, “It wasn’t just a tie; it was a terrific game of cricket and everybody played their part.” That was his spirit. He really liked the game and enjoyed every bit of it.

The first of the five test series for the Frank-Worrel Trophy ended in a dramatic tie. Australia were 92/6, chasing a target of 233 in an allotted 5 hours. Richie Benaud, the captain, entered and went for an unlikely win. He had Davidson at the other end who was already having a magnificent match. Any other captain would not have gone for the kill with 6 wickets down but Richie was a “special” and a “fighting” captain. He had only one word in his dictionary- Win.

Together, these two had a 134 runs partnership which made that test match dramatic. Davidson was run out by a call for quick single from Richie Benaud, which is described as the “most ridiculous call ever” from the former. Unfortunately, Benaud couldn’t take Australia to victory as he was run out in the second ball of the final over, with only 5 runs remaining for victory.

The greatest thing about that match was that it was played in a good sporting spirit and that’s what signified test cricket.

Richie Benaud with the then captain of England- Peter May

In the 1961 tour of England, Benaud missed the second test with an injury but had a decisive role in the fourth test due to which Australia regained the Ashes.

He showed his class with the bowl in the fourth innings as he took 6 wickets and denied the Englishmen to score 256 runs. England were 150/1, when Ted Dexter was dismissed by Benaud and in the same over, the leg-spinner dismissed the captain Peter May for a duck. That really changed the course of the match and Australia won the match by 54 runs.

Richie Benaud, during the course of his exciting career involving 63 tests, became the first player in the history of the game to reach the double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets. He was a captain that made Australia dominant in world cricket. It was his style of attacking that made Test Cricket, which was considered to be a boring game at that time, interesting to the spectators.

Perhaps because of all this, he is known to be as “the most influential cricketer and cricket personality since the Second World War” by Gideon Haigh.