I'm not a huge cricket fan (I'll watch if I'm around kinda thing) but watching the beginning of the Allan Border medal presentation I was struck by what a top bloke dear old Richie Benaud must be.
They showed the poms giving him a standing ovation as he commentated his last ever cricket match in England last year...the whole crowd were standing and applauding...and I thought about how awesome that was for an Aussie to be given that kind of respect in England...then I started thinking about Richie the man...I don't remember a summer without Richie's voice figuring pretty strongly (I grew up in a house full of cricket-mad boys) and I don't think I've ever heard him say a nasty word about anyone or anything...he seems to be from the "if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all" school of commentating. In addition he's managed to be on TV and in the public eye (first as a player) for over 50 years and I don't recall any hint of scandal or anything remotely "off" in his behaviour. And when people have taken the p*** out of him (eg Billy Birmingham, Desktop Richie) all he's ever done is laugh along with them and seen the funny side of things.
With the ever present call for role models I reckon we could do a lot worse than dear old Richie. Tob Bloke indeed.
Cheers, BSquared There's more to politics than left and right...find out where you sit on the polical compass by taking the world's smallest political quiz at http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html
i love animals my husband, hope to make friends. Licensed eBlaher
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i think cricket and richie go together, he isn't biased and is always fair like tony grieg. unlike bill lawry who is so one sided either australia or victoria. cricket lost one great commentator in allan mc gilvray we don't want to lose richie. he is the best of the best!
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