Richie Benaud, born 1930, Australian Cricket Hall of Fame (2007), is one of the great commentators on cricket as well as having been a great player. In a first class career spanning 1948 to 1964, Richie scored 11,719 runs and took 945 wickets. He played for Australia 63 times, 28 as captain, and never lost a Test series as captain. He was the first to achieve the Test Double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets. At Lords he became the first person to watch 500 Test matches as a player or commentator and received a lifetime achievement award in 2004 from the UK's Royal Television Society. His citation observed "His broadcasts bring us unparalleled knowledge and insight - no man is better prepared - never mind the statistician alongside him, providing information, he's already worked out the information for himself. He also manages to make the modern game as compelling as the old game - every day for this remarkable person is as exciting as the day before". It is an honour for SICC to have Richie Benaud, one of cricket's all-time greats, as its patron. Richie has a fondness for Sarasota and has been a regular visitor. He opened SICC's pavilion in April 1994.
Richie Benaud is also a successful author and a leading advocate for The Spirit of Cricket, the preface toThe Laws of Cricket that seeks to reinforce the game's tradition of fair play and sportsmanship. His publications include:
* Richie Benaud's Way of Cricket (1961)
* Tale of Two Tests (1962)
* Spin Me a Spinner (Paperback, 1963)
* The New Champions (1965)
* The Young Cricketer (1971)
* Test Cricket (1974)
* Lords Taverners Fifty Greatest 1945-1983: Post War Cricketers (with T Bailey & MC Cowdrey, 1983)
* The Ashes 1982-83 (1983)
* Benaud on Reflection (1984)
* The Appeal of Cricket (1995)
* Fields of Glory: A Celebration of Cricket in Australia (with V Jenkins, paperback 1995)
* Border & Company (1997)
* The Wacker (with A J Barker, 1998)
* Anything but an autobiography (1998)
* Tom Smith's New Cricket Umpiring & Scoring (with T Smith, 2001)
* Classic After Dinner Sports Talks (with Jonathon Price, Pam Ayres & Dick Francis, 2004)
* My Spin on Cricket (2005)
* Ashes in Focus (with P Eager, 2005)
* Warne (with Shane Warne, 2006)
* Wisden Anthology (with S Moss, 2007)
