article_snippet.sent: Richie Benaud’s family have been offered a state funeral after Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called his death the ‘greatest loss for cricket since the loss of Bradman’.
article_snippet.sent: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: ‘There would be very few Australians who have not passed a summer in the company of Richie Benaud.
article_snippet.sent: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has offered Richie Benaud's family a state funeral .
article_snippet.sent: ‘Richie Benaud was the accompaniment of an Australian summer, Richie Benaud voice was even more present than the chirping of the cicadas in our suburbs and towns, and his voice, tragically, is now still.
article_snippet.sent: But we remember Richie Benaud with tremendous affection.
article_snippet.sent: Richie Benaud pays tribute to Australian media mogul and cricket pioneer Kerry Packer after Kerry Packer death in 2005 .
highlights_snippet.sent: Richie Benaud passed away aged 84 on Friday .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has paid tribute to Richie Benaud .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: CLICK HERE for more Richie Benaud tributes .