Benaud’s major initiatives on his 1961 tour of England were to play attacking cricket in the county games – building on the renaissance which Frank Worrell’s West Indians had started in Australia in 1960-1 after a dour decade of Test cricket - and to court the media as never before. Benaud had been working for the Sydney Sun himself, and realised its influence. He went out of his way to help not only the Australian but English journalists, by answering questions after close of play or sending his players along to functions. Thus he might have softened the blow which struck in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.