Benaud leads tributes to Keith Miller

Australia's most respected cricket commentator Richie Benaud led tributes to one of the nation's most loved sports heroes Keith Miller, who died on Monday aged 84.

Miller, who took 170 wickets and scored 2,958 runs in 55 Tests, would have cast an even bigger shadow on Australia's sporting landscape had he played during the age of television, Benaud said on Tuesday.

"No-one is even close to him in the modern era. Miller was a one-off. There was a golden aura about him," Benaud told local television.

"He's as much loved in England as was the case in Australia," added the former Australia captain.

"In England they had television, whereas television didn't start here until 1956 so we lost Miller because he retired in that year.

"To have Miller on television would have been absolutely outstanding.

"Miller was sensational. Around the world, there will be a real sadness that Keith has gone."

FIGHTER PILOT

A former World War Two bomber pilot, Miller went on to play in Don Bradman's 1948 Ashes-winning "Invincibles".

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He later worked as a cricket journalist in England, and a young player once told him about the pressures of cricket, something he said an old-timer like Miller would not understand.

Miller famously replied cricket was just a game, and real pressure was having a German fighter plane on your tail, Benaud recalled.

Tall and good-looking, Miller played every cut shot as if it could be his last and bowled with pace and venom.

Melbourne broadsheet newspaper The Age said in a front-page headline: "Keith Miller, last of the cavaliers, dead at 84."

Miller liked to party and once arrived to captain New South Wales still wearing a tuxedo from the previous evening, the newspaper said.

Melbourne tabloid newspaper the Herald Sun ran full-page photographs of Miller on their front and back pages with a main headline: "DEATH OF A LEGEND."

Former Test captain Steve Waugh said: "He was one of our great all-rounders, someone who could open the bowling and bat at number three."

The Australian newspaper said Miller's love of wine, women and song may have cost him a chance to captain his country.

Australia Prime Minister John Howard told reporters Miller was one of his boyhood heroes.

"He was an authentic character, he lived life to the full," Howard said on Tuesday.

"He fought for his country, he was a pilot in World War Two and he was a wonderful cricketer."