Category Archives: richie benaud

When Channel Nine was castigated in January 2018

Sam Duncan, Sydney Morning Herald6 January 2018, where the title ran “C’mon, Channel Nine’s cricket commentary isn’t as bad as everybody is saying”

Channel Nine’s coverage of cricket has been copping it from all angles this summer.  Cricket viewers and media commentators alike have lined up to stick the boots in, labelling it everything from outdated, stale and boring to too matey and chummy. Many fans reckon there’s far too much banter from the Nine commentators about their careers from the “good ol’ days” at the expense of insightful analysis about what’s happening on the field. On the flip side, Channel Ten’s Big Bash commentary has been seen as cutting edge, punchy, informative and entertaining.

The poor pitch in the Boxing Day Test meant that a lot of nothing happened a lot of the time. CREDIT:AAP Continue reading

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Filed under Australian cricket, Big Bash League cricket, child of empire, cricketing icons, performance, politics and cricket, richie benaud, T20 Cricket, television commentary

Packer vs the ACB: Haigh’s Revelations

Daniel Brettig, courtesy of ESPNcricinfo, … http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/23408427/story-gideon-haigh-story-packer-affair .. where the title reads “The story behind the story of the Packer affair”

In his acknowledgements for the first edition of The Cricket WarGideon Haigh admitted that “the person who wrote this book was not easy to like”. While he was talking mainly from the point of view of those who would help him put together this landmark chronicle of the World Series Cricket split, its origins and aftermath, there were many in Australian cricket at the time who chose not to like Haigh, or his book idea, in a manner that was both frustrating for the author and telling about the times in which he embarked on the task.

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Filed under Australia Cricket, Australian cricket, cricket and life, cricket governance, cricketer politicians, cricketing icons, Daniel Brettig, Gideon Haigh, politics and cricket, richie benaud, technology and cricket, television commentary, tower of strength, unusual people, World Series Cricket

The Voice of Our Endless Summers falls Silent

Peter Lalor, in The Weekend Australian, 11/12 April 2015

Flags flew half-mast on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and at cricket grounds around the world, pilgrims attended his beckoning SCG statue, and in all corners of the globe players and fans — young and old — realised that the sound of summer had been ­extinguished. Everywhere the game of cricket is played, people yesterday stopped to remember Richie Benaud and contemplate what has been lost and is left by his passing. It is immense.

The former Australian captain, brilliant all-rounder and godfather of the commentary box died, aged 84, after a battle with skin cancer. Benaud had been the voice of cricket at the Nine Network since World Series Cricket days in the late 1970s. BENAUD 21 Continue reading

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Astute Commentators on Cricket: Past, Present and Future

bENAUD IN BOX--PAphotos Ritchie Benaud, whose worldwide reputation was  severely mauled in Sri Lankan eyes by manifest partialities during the finals of the ODI series between the two countries in early 1996

tony cozierTony Cozier Continue reading

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The Australian Invincibles at various moments in Ceylon 1930 to 1953 — in pictorial mode

06 Bradman and SP Foenander, 1930 A young Don Bradman receives a replica of the Dalada Maligava from SP Foenander, Secretary of the Ceylon Cricket Association, on board ship in 1930 … photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia where the gift now reposes.

auscric Australian & Ceylon teams, 1930-thanks to Hugh Karunanayake

09 Bradman & Sathasivam

Sathasivam and Bradman toss, at the Oval 27 March 1948 [it being understood that the Aussies would bat first come what may]

11 C'swamy beats Bradman, '48

Sathi Coomaraswamy gets past Bradman’s bat, with Ben Navaratne right up there. Continue reading

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Filed under Australian cricket, baggy green, Bradman, child of empire, performance, richie benaud, Sri Lanka Cricket

ICC reveals spineless greed on issue of Test play-offs

Gideon Haigh, in  the Weekend Australian, 29-30 October 2011 with different title… Gideon Haigh is one of Australia’s best sports writers and has expertise in financial analysis as well. He has now joined the Weekend Australian’s columns and must be listened to avidly. Web Editor.

HYPOCRISY, the saying goes, is the homage that vice pays to virtue. In cricket, it is the homage administrators pay to Test matches. Time and again, administrators assure us of their continued regard for Test cricket as the game’s ultimate form. Then they pull sneaky little manoeuvres like winnowing Australia’s planned three-Test series against South Africa away to two, and England’s promised five-Test series against South Africa next year to three.

Their recent decision to welch on playoffs for the World Test Championship is perhaps their most destructive move yet. Destructive and also instructive: because it demonstrates how far the game’s welfare now falls behind self-interest and short-term financial expediency as a governance priority.

At their July annual meeting inHong Kong, the executive board of the International Cricket Council, on which Cricket Australia’s representative was its chairman Jack Clarke, agreed to advance plans for playoffs to the World Test Championship: semi-finals and a final among the top four ranked countries. It was welcomed as a much-needed innovation: a chance to contextualise the game’s most skilful and historic format, and enrich it with a finale worth the name. Continue reading

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That underarm moment in World Cricket History …. so Un-Iconic

 1 February 1981: “Richie Benaud said this the most disgraceful thing he had seen on a cricket field. On February 1, 1981, New Zealand were playing Australia in the third of the best-of-five finals of the World Series in Melbourne. 15 were needed off the final over, to be bowled by Trevor Chappell, younger brother of Ian and Greg. It came down to seven off the last ball with Brian McKechnie on strike. Captain Greg instructed Trevor to roll the ball along the ground. Underarm bowling was still legal, even if unethical, and Chappell’s unsporting act was roundly criticised. After the incident, underarm bowling was banned.” — http://www.sharegoodstuffs.com/2011/09/crickets-most-iconic-moments.htmhttp://

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