He was a 39-year-old Bradford Cricket League batsman who would never have made the first team on playing ability, yet his strong personality was the element needed to turn Yorkshire from strife-ridden also rans to a formidable outfit.
Burnet had led Baildon to success in the Bradford League in the early 1950s, and proved himself an effective leader of Yorkshire's Second XI since 1953, the team winning the Minor Counties Championship under his command in 1957.
Yorkshire finished out of the top ten for the first time in their history in his first year in charge after Johnny Wardle, the hugely talented left arm spinner, was sacked for disciplinary rather than playing reasons.
This execution concentrated the minds of the remaining senior pros and in Burnets second and last season Yorkshire won the County Championship, something which would become a habit for the rest of the decade.
Brian Close, one of Burnet's championship winning side, told the York Evening Press that "Ronnie put his heart and soul into Yorkshire cricket which was his life.
Doug Padgett, the county's most prolific batsman in 1959 with 1,807 runs and Yorkshire's coach at the time of Burnet's death, said: "Ronnie turned the side round when he became captain.