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Legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died in a Sydney hospice.



The 84-year-old was receiving radiation treatment for skin cancer since November.

His family announced that he had died peacefully in his sleep, Channel Nine reported.

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.



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.

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."

As news of Benaud's deteriorating health has begun to spread, tributes have been pouring in from across the world.