Legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died in a Sydney hospice.
The 84-year-old had been receiving radiation treatment for skin cancer since November.
His family announced that he had died peacefully in his sleep, Channel Nine reported.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has offered the Benaud family a state funeral.
NSW Premier Mike Baird tweeted that he had asked for flags to be flown at half-mast on Friday.
In 2013, Benaud was involved in a car crash outside his Coogee home that left him with two fractured vertebrae and ended his time in the commentary box.
While his commentating for Channel Nine has become the stuff of summer legend, Benaud led the Australian team to world cricket dominance in the late 1950s.
He played 64 Test matches as an all-rounder between 1952 and 1964.
Richie Benaud at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 23, 1979. Photo: Robert Pearce
He took up his spot behind the microphone with the BBC while still captaining Australia in 1960, before becoming one of the greatest commentators in world cricket over the next half a century.
He is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in the game’s history.
Brilliant captain: Alan Davidson
Australian fast bowling great Alan Davidson who played with Benaud as a schoolboy all the way through to Australian representation said Benaud was one of the great captains.
“He was a great assessor of the game,” Davidson said. “With Richie, it was never a risk but always a calculated decision to do something.
“Nobody every analysed or knew the opposition like Richie did and it was the same thing with his own team – he knew what every player in the side could do and that allowed for him to make decisions which, to the outsider, who wasn’t a cricket expert, seemed ‘different’.
“Richie could assess a situation quickly, it wasn’t so much waiting for a coach to send a message out because he acted mid-over. I bowled long spells for him on many an occasion … he was a brilliant captain, a joy to play for – you have no idea.”
We’ve lost an icon: Abbott
Mr Abbott, speaking at RAAF Base Amberley, west of Brisbane, said: “Our nation has lost an icon. Richie Benaud passed away overnight.
“Richie Benaud has been the voice of cricket. There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud. He was the accompaniment of an Australian summer. His voice was even more present than the chirping of the cicadas in our suburbs and towns and that voice, tragically, is now still.
“But we remember him with tremendous affection. He hasn’t just been the voice of cricket since the early 1960s, he was an extraordinarily successful Australian cricket captain. He led our country for five years in 28 Tests and he never lost a Test series.
“He was the first cricketer to achieve the remarkable double of 2000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets. This is the greatest loss for cricket since the loss of Don Bradman and for that reason I’m pleased to have offered the Benaud family a state funeral.
“But this is a sad day for everyone who loves cricket and it’s a sad day for everyone who has felt that Richie Benaud is a part of his or her life.”
The face of cricket: John Howard
Former Australian prime minister John Howard, a keen cricket enthusiast, told Channel Nine that Benaud was in so many ways the face of cricket to Australians.
Mr Howard said Benaud was “universally respected”.
“He was regarded as a true professional when it came to cricket commentary,” Mr Howard said.
“He didn’t waste words. He didn’t just feel it was necessary to talk into the microphone. If he didn’t have anything to say, well he wouldn’t say it, and that’s a pretty good rule.
“He had enormous respect because he was a class act. He was a champion player himself.”
Mr Howard said also praised Benaud’s skills as a journalist.
“As a print journalist he was very good, he wrote for English newspapers for decades … He could write as well as talk.”
Sad day: Shorten
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Australia had lost a legend of cricket and its “voice of summer”.
“Sad day for our country. Farewell & rest in peace Richie Benaud,” he tweeted.
Best in the business: Channel Nine
Channel Nine chief executive David Gyngell said Benaud’s passing had “robbed us not only of a national treasure, but a lovely man”.
“Richie earned the profound and lasting respect of everyone across the world of cricket and beyond – first as an outstanding player and captain, then as an incomparable commentator, and through it all as a wonderful human being,” he said on Friday.
Nine’s head of sport Steve Crawley said Benaud, 84, had been the “best in the business”.
“You didn’t have to know Richie to love him. Everything about him. Best in the business bar none. We will miss him the way you miss loved ones. And at the same time we will thank our lucky stars he came our way at all,” he said.
Richie Benaud is survived by wife Daphne (nee Surfleet), sons Greg and Jeffery from a previous marriage and brother John.
Richie Benaud: Words of Wisdom
‘Captaincy is 90 per cent luck and 10 per cent skill. But don’t try it without that 10 per cent.’
‘My mantra is: put your brain into gear and if you can add to what’s on the screen then do it, otherwise shut up.’
‘A cricket ground is a flat piece of earth with some buildings around it.’
‘But I think the only thing that annoys me about that is if I suddenly find someone on commercial radio or something like that, mimicking my voice or actions and trying to promote a product and pretending it’s me doing it.’
‘His throw went absolutely nowhere near where it was going’
‘I think the batsman’s strategy will be to make runs and not get out’
‘This shirt is unique: there are only 200 of them’
‘Gatting at fine leg; that’s a contradiction in terms’
‘The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see’
‘He’s usually a good puller – but he couldn’t get it up that time’
