John Benaud

John Benaud (born 11 May 1944) is a former Australian cricketer.

Benaud is the son of Louis and Irene Benaud. His only sibling was fellow cricketer Richie Benaud, who was older by 13 years. John is married to Lindsay Benaud with two children. Benaud has lived in the Blue Mountains since 1971.

John began his working career at Fairfax Media's Sydney Sun newspaper as a copy-boy. He was subsequently awarded a journalism cadetship and his career progressed at the paper where he remained for his entire working life. By the time the Sun was closed in 1988 following the disastrous takeover by Warwick Fairfax, Benaud had risen to be the editor-in-chief of the paper. Throughout the 1990s Benaud wrote cricket columns for Australian, British and Indian sports magazines and ghost-wrote several autobiographies. In 1997 he released the book Matters of Choice, the story of his time as an Australian cricket selector.

Benaud played first-class cricket for New South Wales for six years, from 1966/67 to 1972/73, becoming captain of the State side. While Captain of the NSW team, Benaud was famously suspended for a month after refusing to obey the ban on Adidas Grass-sports shoes.