Few people understand cricket as well as Richie Benaud. Born in New South Wales, he was a high class attacking batsman and a masterful leg-break bowler, captaining Australia in 28 of the 63 Tests in which he played. After retiring as a player in 1964, Richie Benaud quickly became a successful TV commentator. No one else has found such favour with the vast majority of cricket lovers at both ends of the world for so long. He has known every major figure in cricket for forty years, as colleague and friend or both, and with his gift as a raconteur, this will be the cricket biography of 1998.