Richie Benaud: G'night.

Farewell Richie Benaud, the greatest voice of the greatest game: Test Cricket.

Throughout my childhood, whether playing with mates against the garages with the TV booming inside or deep in the living room with curtains drawn all summer's day long, Richie Benaud was alpha and omega, umpire and arbiter, philosopher, preacher, policeman and, for all we knew, web-footed cocklewoman too.

From May to September each year we paid tribute by adopting Benaud's accent and nightly willed that tomorrow it would fall to him to announce when one team or the other - we didn't care which - would reach the magical, the, the ... Benaudian scoreline of 22 for 2: a phrase once heard - and I only did so once - never to be forgotten.

Nor, I hope and am sure, will he ever be.

Most memorable for me was Benaud's verdict on one of the most disgraceful moments in sport when, with New Zealand needing a 6 to tie, the Australian Trevor Chappell was instructed - within the rules but with utter disregard for the dignity of cricket - to bowl the last delivery of the match underarm and along the floor.

Here's the clip. In true Benaud style - politely authoritative but with forthright finality - it's even more withering than the accompanying subtitles for his Australian viewers.

And that "G'night" - what a sign-off!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvGHC7REkdM