Saw my first test match in the summer of 1962/63 at the SCG when Richie's team tussled with Ted Dexter's Pommy tourists. As a small country boy used to baked hard brown summer paddocks the bright green cricket oval was an eye opener. And the cricket, it was spell-bounding; I was hooked. That day my younger brother had quite a turn, I thought at the time he was bunging it one and said to our father, "bugger him, this cricket's fantastic". We later found out it was his first reaction to a crustacean allergy.....
Benaud was an outstanding leader of men and left his legacy with Ian Chappell and, later, Shane Warne. His practice of saying nothing when there was nothing to be added to the shot on screen stands as a valuable lesson to the chattering classes.