Benaud plays on with Nine’s cricket

Veteran cricket commentator Richie Benaud and the Nine Network announced yesterday they had signed another deal that will delay the retirement of the legendary expert.

Benaud, 79, was due to retire at the end of the upcoming season, but Nine CEO David Gyngell has contracted him to April 2013.

The Nine boss asked him over lunch if he wanted to “keep going”.

“And I said, ‘yes’,” Benaud said.

“I’d expressed to (head of sport) Steve Crawley and others that I wanted to keep working for Nine and I wanted to be on the cricket.

But Benaud won’t be doing live commentary.

“But I will be doing all sorts of, what I regard as, interesting things for Channel Nine on the cricket – special features on the cricket – and David was pretty happy with that, Steve is happy with that, and Daphne (his wife) and I are happy with that as well because we didn’t want to move anywhere else.”

Benaud says he was very specific about the phrasing of his statement made last February, noting, “I knew I wouldn’t be doing any live commentary after a certain time.”

Source: news.com.au