This is an edited script of the eulogy given last night by Richie Benaud

THERE'S rain coming down, a bit of a dodgy pitch, wind blowing - but I reckon he would have handled it with all of his consummate skill.

There's a crowd there filled with memories and bowling changes here at the cathedral end have been many and varied. He's now got an ageing leg spinner and I think The Don might have welcomed that.

He was the most famous of them all in the late 1920s and that was a time when despair ruled Australia because of the Great Depression. Seventy years later, 100 selectors from around the world nominated the five greatest players of the century - 100 selectors and The Don received 100 votes. At only six years old, Bradman was captain of Australia in a concrete storeroom ... where I played in Test matches.

When I was 10, he was still captain and that was on the back verandah at Parramatta, where he led and won and was absolutely brilliant in all those Test matches I used to play. I wasn't alone in that. Thousands and thousands of other youngsters around Australia played their Test matches like that and Bradman and McCabe made all the runs.

When he first came under notice as a cricketer, he was playing such good tennis that there was some thought he would have to make a decision.

When he was so good at both that he was chosen in the combined country sides to go to Sydney, the decision was made for him.

It was lovely to be around as captain when that extraordinary series of Test matches were played against the West Indies in 1960-61, the tied Test series. One of the more significant happenings in Australian cricket came about in that series when, the night before the first day of the tied Test, The Don came to me and asked if it would be all right if he came to speak to the team.

He said the selectors would be looking in kindly fashion on those cricketers in Australia who played the game in attractive fashion ... and thought of the game rather than themselves. The unspoken words were that anyone not wanting to fit in with those plans shouldn't think about giving up their day jobs.

It was that vision as a selector which I found so outstanding and interesting.

The Australian March 26th 2001