Benaud - Over but not Out

Over But Not Out

Richie Benaud

www.hodder.co.uk

Also by Richie Benaud

Way of Cricket

A Tale of Two Tests

Spin Me a Spinner

The New Champions

Willow Patterns

Benaud on Reflection

The Appeal of Cricket

Anything but... an Autobiography

My Spin on Cricket

First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Hodder & Stoughton

An Hachette UK company

Copyright Richie Benaud 2010

The right of Richie Benaud to be identified as the Author of the

Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs

and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise

circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which

it is published and without a similar condition being

imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Epub ISBN 9781444711219

Book ISBN 9781444705928

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

338 Euston Road

London NW1 3BH

www.hodder.co.uk

Dedication

Much of life is unplanned. You might set out determined to pursue a particular course and suddenly it all unravels. At other times what might have started out as lack of planning will be right at the close of a day or even the close of play on a cricket field.

Over the years many people have had a beneficial influence on cricket and the manner in which it is played. Two of those were Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey, who conceived the idea of the Spirit of Cricket, which is now written as the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket. It is so good that, as each year passes, it underlines for me that it should be no hardship to embrace the Spirit of Cricket, as well as the winning of the game, for anyone in any way connected with it. In the most subtle fashion possible, Cowdrey and Dexter asked of cricketers whether it is impossible to win a match without what, in these modern times, is known as sledging.

One thing in life you cannot do is choose your parents, but my brother John and I could not have been luckier to have Lou and Rene, who were pioneers in every sense of the word and lived their lives in the way the Spirit of Cricket suggests can be done with the game. Whether it was around the meal table or on any sporting field, they were pioneers in the very best sense of the word; straightforward people, honest, loving and dedicated to bringing up a family and, at the same time, to having a beneficial influence on youngsters they met in classrooms or in life.

They passed on their advice in this way: Do your best, never give up and dont take yourselves too seriously.

Acknowledgements

When I mentioned to Daphne in 1998, after Anything but... an Autobiography was published, that this would be the last time we would write a book she was pleasantly surprised. However, so many things happened in the next six years that My Spin on Cricket was written in order to bring things up to date in 2005. Five years on from there, Over But Not Out provides a different-style book in that it retains some of the more pertinent aspects of Anything but... and at the same time introduces different slants on the modern game of cricket.

We have been very lucky over the years that many of the same people have been involved with the books and that the organisation is handled by Vivienne Schuster and Jacquie Drewe of Curtis Brown.

John Benaud again has used his great cricket knowledge and discerning journalistic eye to help commit the pages of transcript to paper, Clare Oldridge in London is our personal assistant and good friend and I still raise a glass with Bob Gray for accidentally coming up with the title of Anything but... That book was also worked on by our secretary of the time, Margaret Roseland, sadly no longer with us, but missed by all who came into contact with her.

In Australia, our secretary Cathy Mycock is a tower of strength in the office, a delightful friend, a fine golfer and lover of all sport. Daphne, with her knowledge of cricket and of television, her discerning eye with people from all areas and her ability to remain calm is a delight to be with.

Just think of all the fun Ive had since walking on to a cricket field to play my first Sheffield Shield match in 1948 and into a television commentary box in 1963 for the BBC.

Contents

Introduction

What luck, what good fortune to have meandered through many years working in the television world and the print media in all cricket-playing countries. Writing has always been something special for me, though I know no one should get carried away by working at a job; it is trying to improve that provides the fun. Improvement can be achieved in different ways. Never discard listening as a source of learning. It could be the most important decision you ever make.

Book titles can sometimes be a problem. When Anything but... went on sale in 1998 very few people thought it a good title. The favourite, before a word was actually written, was Richie Benaud: My Autobiography . Mentioned briefly in the Acknowledgements is Robert Gray. Originally we were competitors in the sense that he was the cricket writer for the Sydney Daily Mirror ; I was the cricket writer for the Sydney Sun . We both enjoyed horseracing and having a small bet or two, small being the operative word because we were both on the impecunious side of hard up, but we managed a few winners here and there.

It was Gray who said at Odins restaurant in London, on 7 July 1997, Not an autobiography, Benaud... anything but an autobiography. Out of small paragraphs sometimes are born splendid ideas. And, the title made it through the various meetings at Hodder where Roddy Bloomfield held sway; he also holds sway thirteen years later as the consummate editor. This time he has with him Tim Waller, a younger editor who has done a brilliant job.

One of the lucky things was in 1956 when the rest of the Australian team went for three weeks holiday to the Continent. This was because the Australian Board of Control had decreed that on the way home the Australian team would play one Test on the matting in Pakistan and then three other Tests in India. Instead of taking the holiday, I asked Tom Sloan, Head of BBC light entertainment, to construct for me a three-week TV course, 11 a.m. to midnight every day, and, having completed that, I flew to Italy to join the team and on to Pakistan. Television had started that year in Australia, but I never used what I had learned in England over those three weeks until seven years later when I was asked to join the BBC. On returning to Australia in November 1956, Lindsay Clinch, the editor of the Sun newspaper, moved me from the counting house to the editorial section to work under Police Roundsman Noel Bailey. It was the most wonderful experience.

There are four men, themselves Test cricketers, who were my mentors. Without their guidance I would never have made the grade. I was lucky enough to play with Arthur Morris, Keith Miller and Ray Lindwall at Sheffield Shield and Test level. Bill OReilly was the fourth when, in 1953, he gave up a dinner with his great mate Lindsay Hassett to have dinner with me and explain where I was going wrong with my bowling and how I could put it right. He added, correctly, it would take me four years to achieve. It was a privilege to have been associated with all four of them.

One of my favourite quotes remains: In the thirty-five years over which my memory sweeps, cricket has undergone many changes. The game we play today is scarcely like the game of my boyhood. There have been silent revolutions transforming cricket in many directions, improving it in some ways and in others robbing it of some elements of its charm. No, it is not the work of some genial and talented journalist wordsmith but the thoughts of W. G. Grace in 1899, the same year that Australian Victor Trumper first toured England. He also wrote about past champions like Alfred Mynn. He said of Mynn that he would, I doubt not, stand amazed at the metamorphosis fifty years have effected in cricket. The very ground itself would bewilder him. He played on open commons with rude tents as dressing rooms and the vast enclosure and palatial pavilion would dazzle his senses.