Famous Cricketers No 100 - Richie Benaud

1952/53 Benaud’s figures for this year may not be eye-catching, but he did have the one thing every Australian cricketer wanted – a place in the national team for the Test series against South Africa. He started the series as twelfth man, then played in the remaining four Tests, though his selection was not always a popular one. In Shield games he could only manage a placing of 38th in the bowling averages, with only 7 bowlers below him. Alarmingly, he only bowled 9 maidens for the season, his control not having developed to the point where he could consistently tie a batsman down. Interestingly, Benaud’s statistics for this season fare badly when compared to Brian Flynn, a potential rival for his Test position, who took 14 wickets at 23.78. Benaud described Flynn as “the finest leg-spinner I have ever seen in the nets, absolutely unplayable on a good practice wicket”. Yet Flynn lacked Benaud’s commitment to his art and his explosive ability with the bat and ended up playing in England after his results tapered off. Another hugely talented leg-spinner around at this time was Jack Iverson. Australian cricket had never seen anything like Iverson – he bowled with an unheard-of bent-finger grip and was freakishly accurate and near-impossible to pick. Yet he retired after only 34 first-class games and a single Test series, his fragile temperament not suited to the harsh world of elite sport. Benaud has no doubt that if Iverson had stayed in the game, Australia would have won the 1953 Ashes series. When ‘Tiger’ O’Reilly later wrote that Benaud was not a truly gifted leg-spin bowler, it is likely that he meant the comment not as an insult, but more as a tribute to Benaud’s commitment and patience which saw him ultimately out-perform bowlers such as Flynn and Iverson who were arguably more naturally gifted A pivotal point in Benaud’s development as a bowler occurred this season when Colin McCool noticed his bleeding fingers at a practice session and told him that he needed to look far and wide for some kind of cure. McCool had suffered from a similar complaint and knew only too well how the ailment made it harder to grip the ball and put ‘work’ on it. Benaud had tried everything in the book; methylated spirits, Friar’s Balsam, every available type of medicated cream and even plastic glue but nothing provided much relief and the ailment continued to be a distraction. It was to be some years before Benaud finally found something that worked and without McCool’s advice, he may not have persevered with trying to find the cure that eventually proved so helpful. As was custom at this time, the Australian team played matches against Western Australia and Tasmania en route to England. The latter State did not have a Shield team in this era and the local representative side was supplemented by a number of established Australian players, making the matches a high-standard hit out for the tourists. Benaud peeled off consecutive unbeaten centuries in these two games, including his highest score to date – 167* against Combined XI. This swash- buckling innings included 25 runs off one Ian Craig over and was part of a 167 run partnership in 86 minutes with Alan Davidson. Benaud also took 5/87 in the second innings, his first five-wicket haul. His seven wickets for the match included five Test players. In the following match, Benaud struck an unbeaten century in just 106 minutes. These outstanding performances marked him as a player to watch on the 1953 Ashes tour. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 21. New South Wales v Queensland, Brisbane, October 24, 25, 27, 28 (Match drawn) (8) c L.A.Sanders b C.L.McCool 63 499 30 3 90 3 E.A.Toovey c A.R.Morris 246 R.G.Archer c G.S.Trueman D.Tallon c R.R.Lindwall (1) c and b K.M.Jack 0 9-1 29 3 118 2 K.M.Jack c R.R.Lindwall 383 1 C.R.Smith c and b 22. New South Wales v Queensland, Sydney, November 7, 8, 10 (New South Wales won by nine wickets) (8) c D.Tallon b C.L.McCool 8 260 - - - - 92 2 did not bat - 65-1 13 0 63 2 C.L.McCool st G.S.Trueman 232 R.G.Archer c G.S.Trueman 19