Sydney, Australia: Richie Benaud, Australia's celebrated former cricket captain and commentator, died on Thursday at the age of 84.

Former Australian captain Richie Benaud, known as the ‘voice of cricket’ to fans around the world, has died aged 84, Channel Nine announced Friday.

Benaud, one of Australia's most influential cricketers and much loved commentators, died overnight in his sleep, reports AFP.

He had been fighting skin cancer and suffered serious injury in a car accident in late 2013.

The 63 Test matches veteran was the first player to score 2,000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets.

Australia never lost a series under the leg-spinning all-rounder's attacking captaincy which ran for 28 games.

Benaud also played a key role in the formation of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket that revolutionised the professional game in the 1970s and went on to anchor Channel Nine cricket coverage for decades.

Tributes poured in from around the nation for Benaud, who was born in 1930.

‘My vintage, we grew up with that voice,’ said current Australian captain Michael Clarke.

Benaud took 248 Test wickets at an average of 27.03 and had a highest score of 248 in a remarkable career that saw him take five wickets 16 times.

‘If cricket had ever anointed a pope it would be Richie Benaud,’ said Jim Maxwell, one of Australia's leading commentators.

After retirement in 1964, Benaud moved into commentary, first with the BBC in England.

He was the mainstay in Australian cricket television commentary until the past two southern summers, before announcing in November 2014 that he had skin cancer.

Here are a selection of quotes from the man who came to be known as the 'voice of cricket' during a 40-year career behind the microphone, reports Reuters.

On his approach to cricket commentary:

‘Put your brain into gear and if you can add to what's on the screen then do it, otherwise shut up.’

On captaincy:

‘Captaincy is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don't try it without that 10%’.

On the media:

‘Media were never allowed into an Australian dressing room until I became skipper. I changed that and invited them in at the close of play each day, thereby confirming for many administrators they had appointed a madman as captain’.

On Australian legspinner Shane Warne's 1993 ‘ball of the century’ which bowled England batsman Mike Gatting on day two of the first test of the Ashes series at Old Trafford:

‘What a cricketer, what a match-winner, what a ball. Gatting has absolutely no idea what has happened to it. Still doesn't know. He asked (umpire) Kenny Palmer on the way out, Kenny Palmer just gave him a raised eyebrow and a little nod.’

On the infamous under-arm bowling incident, when Australia captain Greg Chappell had his brother Trevor bowl under-arm to New Zealand's Brian McKechnie with the final ball of a one-day match in Melbourne in 1981:

‘Let me tell you what I think about it, I think it was a disgraceful decision by a captain who got his sums wrong today.

‘I think it should never be permitted to happen again -- we keep reading and hearing that the players are under pressure and they're tired and jaded and perhaps their skill is blunted.

‘Well, perhaps they might advance that as an excuse for what happened out there today, (but) not with me they don't. I think it was a very poor performance, one of the worst things I've ever seen done on a cricket field. Goodnight.’

On Australia's iconic cricketer Don Bradman:

‘I once said to (Australia all-rounder) Keith Miller how disappointed I was to have made my debut in the same year as Bradman finished. How wonderful it would have been to have watched him play at the SCG in 1940 and then been able to bowl at him on the same ground.

‘Nugget (Miller) looked at me and remarked drily that everyone has one lucky break in a lifetime and that may well have been mine.’

On his skin cancer:

‘When I was a kid, we never, ever wore a cap. Not the flash ones ... Nugget Miller never wore a cap, so I didn't.

‘I wish I had. You live and learn as you go along.

‘I recommend to everyone they wear protection on their heads. Eighty-four-year-olds don't seem to mend as well as they used to.’