No longer just the white, the off-white, the ivory or the beige. Richie Benaud now comes in bronze. And just like his selection of trademark jackets, it is a colour that's proved a perfect fit.

The former Test skipper and world renowned cricket commentator on Friday became the first of 10 sporting legends to be honoured in sculpture at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The statue is described as life-size, although the Benaud sculpture - depicting the leg-spinner during his playing days a half-century ago - seems to somewhat dwarf the now 77-year-old.

It shows Benaud about to begin his delivery stride, shirt unbuttoned nearly all the way to the waist, and with his sleeves rolled up. In the 1950s and `60s, thousands would wait in great anticipation for Benaud to deliver his leg-breaks.

On Friday, hundreds eagerly waited behind the Ladies Stand at the SCG for Benaud to deliver a well-flighted anecdote or two in acceptance of what he termed a "great honour".

Just as in his playing days, he didn't disappoint. "The first thing I want to say is I like it," Benaud began.

"The positioning of the sculpture could hardly have been better. That was the spot that I always parked the car. A very nice gesture."

He went on to recall his first class debut at the ground 60 years ago in NSW's New Year's Eve Sheffield Shield match against Queensland in 1948.

NSW won a rain-marred match, thanks to a century from captain Arthur Morris, with Benaud not even getting the chance to roll the arm over.

"Arthur came up to me after the match and said, 'Son, I'm sorry I couldn't have given you a bowl. I just thought there were others that could use the conditions better'," he recalled.

Benaud briefly skipped forward to his Test debut at the ground against the West Indies in 1951-52, before returning to 1940 when he saw his first match at the ground - a life-changing experience.

"I saw Clarrie Grimmett take 6-118," he said. "The next day I was up bowling leg breaks against the wall."

Another three cricketers, and two players each from rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules football, will also have sculptures erected around the SCG and Sydney Football Stadium as part of the project, but there could hardly have been a more appropriate inaugural inductee than Benaud.

"Richie was the most influential figure in world cricket in the 20th century," SCG Trust chairman Rodney Cavalier said of Benaud, who played 63 Tests for Australia, taking 248 wickets.

Businessman and philanthropist Basil Sellers has commissioned the series with sculptor Terrance Plowright taking six months to produce the 400kg statue of Benaud.