Chappell recalls comm box dry wit of Benaud

To former Australia captain and Channel Nine commentator Greg Chappell, Richie Benuad was his hero.

Following the leg-spinner's career from the mid-1950s, Chappell and his brothers were instructed by their father to watch Benaud's NSW team whenever they travelled to the Adelaide Oval, suggesting "if we wanted to be good players it would be good to watch good players".

Benaud finished his decorated playing career as captain of his country and Australia's leading wicket-taker in Test cricket, inspiring a generation of players, including Chappell, with aggressive cricket and charismatic flair.

To millions of cricket fans around the world for more than half a century, Benaud was the voice of cricket, providing precise comment with a dry wit and knack for knowing when not to speak that to this day remains unmatched.

And it's in the commentary box where Chappell got to know his boyhood hero, and says older brother Ian was one of Benaud's closest friends.

Throughout his time with the Wide World of Sports commentary team, Chappell shared some personal and hilarious moments with Richie, and below are two gems told to cricket.com.au.

"I think the Billy Birmingham 12th Man series did wonders for the Channel Nine commentary team, particularly Richie, Bill, Tony Greig, they really became legends through that series," said Chappell today.

"Billy gave a real insight in a humorous way in to the commentary team and the commentary box. In many ways, Richie and Bill became the characters from The 12th Man, larger than life. The bits that Billy picked up, not least the 'two for two-hundred and twenty-two' from Richie became legendary around the country, but it was also legendary within the commentary box.

"No one ever mentioned it when Richie was around until one day Bill and Richie were commentating on a domestic one-day game down in Hobart. I was in the commentary box when the score came up as 2-222 and Bill thought it would be quite humorous to do it in the Billy Birmingham Richie way of 'choo for choo-hundred and chwenty choo', at which point Bill broke down laughing.

"Richie just looked down his nose over his pout at Bill. He wouldn't commentate, Bill couldn't commentate, so there were two overs of silence. Every time Bill picked up the microphone he'd start laughing and couldn't talk and Richie wouldn't talk. We were all rolling around in the back of the commentary box."

Benaud's Hall of Fame induction from the 2007 Allan Border Medal

"I was commentating with Richie in the West Indies in the mid-90s and we were in Guyana and there's only one golf course which was quite a way out of town. I was a keen golfer and Richie was a keen golfer, and when Tony Greig couldn't play I rang Richie to see if he was interested. He said 'yeah you organise it and I'll play, that's fine, just tell me what time to meet you downstairs'.

"I rang the golf club and the phone rang and rang and rang before finally some bloke who was out of breath answered the phone, and I said 'it's Greg Chappell and Richie Benaud from Australia, we were wondering if we could play golf?' He said come out, that'll be fine. So I organised a car from the hotel and it was the best part of an hour's drive on a rubbish road which got worse the closer we got to the golf course. Richie sat silently throughout the trip. I made small talk and he answered but didn't elaborate much.

"We got to the golf course, and again as we drove up this rough road on the other side of the golf course we saw this bloke and when he saw the car he started running up to the club house. He did everything. He was the secretary, the groundsman, the whole thing so he had to come up and sign us in.

"It was a nine-hole course so we had to go around it twice if we wanted to play 18 holes, so we decided we'd play 18 holes as it was quite warm. We started off and I got chatting away and Richie wasn't saying much. So after a few holes I thought, 'Stuff it, if he's not that interested in a conversation I'll shut up and see how long we go'. We went 15 holes without a word being spoken."