Famous Cricketers No 100 - Richie Benaud

SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Test matches 4 7 1 124 45 24.00 - - 4 Sheffield Shield 4 6 0 161 69 26.83 - 2 5 Other matches 5 7 2 449 167* 89.80 2 1 5 Season 13 20 3 734 167* 43.17 2 3 14 Career 33 49 4 1596 167* 35.46 3 7 32 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 105.6 23 306 10 4-118 30.60 - - Sheffield Shield 98 9 381 8 3-90 47.62 - - Other matches 147 29 519 20 5-87 25.95 1 - Season (8b) 350.6 61 1206 38 5-87 31.73 1 - Career (8b) 679.1 89 2558 68 5-87 37.61 1 - 1953 – Australia in England Australia arrived in England during this Coronation year to find a country marked by renewed optimism, both for the Ashes series and in general. English society was moving slowly but surely moving towards post-war prosperity. The good-spirited tour saw Australia lose only one match from thirty-five, but it was enough to hand England a 1-0 Test result and thus the Ashes. Benaud started the tour brightly with an entertaining 97 against a strong Yorkshire side, led by Len Hutton, in the second match. Jack Fingleton, one of the journalists covering the tour, wrote that cricket fans would be privileged to see another innings as good as Benaud’s all summer. His bowling was also outstanding in the lead-up games and going into the Test series, Benaud had the best bowling average of any Australian, his 27 wickets costing just 11.03 apiece. However, things fell apart in the First Test, where he barely got a bowl and in the second at Lord’s where he was collared by Denis Compton in the second innings. Many observers felt that if Australia had in their team a top-flight spinner, they would have comfortably wrapped up the latter, instead of allowing England to escape with a draw. Some suggested Benaud was under-prepared for the bigger matches and hadn’t done enough bowling in recent games. Another theory, supported by Arthur Mailey, is that Lindsay Hassett simply did not know how to use his spin bowlers. The theory runs that Hassett, with his nimble feet, was so adept at playing spin bowling himself that he lacked both respect for spinners as attacking weapons and knowledge of the subtleties of when to introduce spin and how to set fields for it. Whatever the reason for his disappointing Test returns, one thing seemed clear - Benaud’s position in the team was in question heading into the Third Test. It was around this time that Lou became worried that Richie might be axed. “I hope they don’t drop him, he’ll come good” he used to say. Benaud was in fact dropped for the third Test at Manchester, another draw, and then was recalled for the fourth Test but failed to take a wicket and neither team could force a result. He was again out of the team for the fifth and final Test, where Australia didn’t play a specialist spinner, none of Benaud, Ring or Hill having made much of an impact. Laker and Lock snared 11 wickets between them as England won the match by 8 wickets. While his contribution at Test level was negligible, Benaud’s first Ashes tour was by no means a completely dispiriting experience. He had some good days with both bat and ball, particularly early in the tour, though these generally came against lesser sides. He also received universal praise for his fielding and pulled off some remarkable catches. Radio commentator Rex Alston noted that “it was never safe for the batsman to hit the ball near to him” and described his catch to dismiss Tom Graveney in the fourth Test as “almost out of this world”. Undoubtedly, Benaud was on a steep learning curve. A much-repeated anecdote has the impish Australian captain Lindsay Hassett ordering Benaud, then a teetotaller, a scotch on the rocks, then another and another. It was one of the many lessons Benaud picked up on this tour – in this case a gentle pointer that there was no need for his legendary intensity to apply to every aspect of his life. Some slightly more cricket-related advice came from Doug Ring, the senior spinner in the team, who gave Benaud much useful advice on 21