RIP Martin Crowe

Virgil

Awesome KP I'm sure I've posted similar stats over the years regarding the main part of Crowes career. 
You have to wonder too how much better his record would be if he wasn't fighting illness and injury most of his career. Not too mention carry a fairly ordinary NZ side.

canefan

And not had the misfortune to play in the golden era of nasty fast bowling

Siam

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiPie" data-cid="562245" data-time="1457051248">
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Stats fans chew on this.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/977995.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/977995.html</a>
I was struck watching the Crowe video highlights last night by how unusual his batting style was - it was distinctively Crowe in the way he seemed to move his whole body through his drives rather than plant the feet then play the shot. He did combine elegance with brute force in a way that few batsmen have. 

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Yeah KP, that "shuffle" or "shrug" of the shoulders when driving. Looking at it now it's a clever technique to get all momentum moving forward to combat the ball seaming away, which NZ and county pitches always offered in those days. In Aus you can stand and deliver almost with your weight on your back foot, on green tops you have to get all your weight forward and those highlights demonstrate that - even another little skip forward after the ball hits the bat.
 
Here's a good piece from a definitely unbiased source - Greg Chappel in the Guardian
 
It was Martin Croweâ€™s insatiable curiosity that struck me on our first meeting. He embodied the old African proverb, which stated, â€œThe one who asks questions does not lose his wayâ€.
Martin was 19 years of age and playing Test cricket well before he was ready for it against a strong Australian pace attack. He had managed to get run out for 9 in his first and only innings for the Test and, without being unkind, he was lucky to get that many.
It was off the field that Martin made the biggest impression on me.
As was the tradition at the time, the two teams would get together at the end of each day for a few cold drinks and a chat. When Martin came into our room at the end of day one he made a bee-line to where a few of us were sitting and joined the group.
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	<a  class="">Martin Crowe: a batting master craftsman who was ahead of his time</a>
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After a respectful wait while the conversation went around in circles, Martin started asking questions of myself, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh. He asked good, insightful questions and was rapt as he listened to the answers. When it happened again in Auckland and again in Christchurch, I began to take notice of the young man whose work had totalled 20 runs in his first four Test innings.
It was obvious that he possessed immense talent and athleticism, but it was his intelligence and his desire to succeed at the highest level that had me convinced that he would find a way to express his potential; sooner rather than later. It took him until his fourteenth Test innings â€“ back in Wellington â€“ to make his first Test century. It was achieved with the hallmark elegance that we came to expect from him.
That he went on to make another 16 Test tons and finished with a Test average of 45.36 did not go close to telling the full story of his dedication, determination, courage or his talent. Martin was the outstanding New Zealand batsman of his era and is arguably the best that they have ever produced.
John Reid, Bert Sutcliffe and Glenn Turner were all good players and each had their own strengths. Reid had power, Sutcliffe was classy and Turner was exceedingly patient, but Martin was a composite of the three of them with a dash of flair and an arrogance that all the best players have. Had Martin been born in Australia, or anywhere else for that matter, I believe his record would have better reflected his talents and would place him in the highest pantheon of batsmen from all countries.
New Zealand pitches in his time were tough to bat on. Often damp, always covered with grass, they were challenging as the ball darted off the seam disconcertingly. It needed a great deal of patience, a well-honed method that got one close to the ball and an unerring eye to find the middle of the bat consistently in those conditions.
Martin was renowned for his front foot play, but I remember his back foot shots through the off-side as a great strength. It is well known that he drove anything that was slightly over-pitched. This forced bowlers to pull back from that length only to see a slightly under-pitched ball brutally dispatched through the off side with a dismissive flash of an amazingly vertical blade.
I didnâ€™t play against Martin again after his first series, but I did keep an eye on him from a distance as he carried New Zealand batting on his broad and deceptively powerful back for over a decade. In coalition with Richard Hadlee he made New Zealand a formidable opponent during their time. Crowe averaged 55 in the 16 Test match victories in that period, which is a much better reflection of the massive talent that he was.
Once Martin became comfortable at the highest level, he played some memorable innings, of which his two Test centuries at Lordâ€™s and his 299 against Sri Lanka at Wellington were among his favourites.
His second Test century at Lordâ€™s in 1994 was probably his crowning achievement. Troubled for much of his career with knee problems, Martin had been out of Test cricket for some time and approached the Test with some trepidation. He need not have worried. Even though well short of full fitness, he made a masterful 142 on a ground he held in high regard because of its place in the history of the game he loved.
This was one of the many of his innings which epitomised Peter Roebuckâ€™s comment about him: â€œCrowe could soar like an Eagleâ€. The 299, ironically, was his biggest disappointment. He would love to have made a 300 in Test cricket.
Always a lateral thinker, Martin showed his nous and disregard for convention when, as captain during the 1992 <a class="" href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/cricket">Cricket</a> World Cup, he pushed hard-hitting Mark Greatbatch up the order to attack and opened the bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel. Both moves had a huge impact on the success that the team achieved under Martinâ€™s leadership.
Martin wasnâ€™t always comfortable in his own skin and often made life more difficult than it needed to be during his playing days. Ironically, it took retirement and his subsequent illness for him to explore and finally discover who he really was. He actually quite liked the person that he uncovered.
After his playing days, Martin began a media career with Sky Sports in New Zealand. Once again his penchant for lateral thinking was seen with his invention of Cricket Max, which proved hugely popular with audiences and players alike and, in many ways, was the forerunner to Twenty20 cricket.
I had many conversations with Martin during his illness and he was always unfailingly positive and upbeat. It was during this time that he revisited his autobiography. The result was â€œRawâ€ which was as uncompromisingly open and honest as the title suggested. His writing for ESPNCricinfo was another place where he explored the deep recesses of his creative mind to seek solutions for some of the problems besetting the game. One always walked away from reading these pieces thinking a little differently about the game.
I am profoundly sad that Martinâ€™s life was cut so cruelly short at a time when he had so much for which to live. I feel deeply for his wife and daughter who have lost a loving husband and father who still had so much to offer.
Martin was always highly regarded by his peers, but he hasnâ€™t been as well recognised by the wider population as he should be. Wherever he travels in the next life I am sure they all will be aware that they are in the presence of someone special. Perhaps in death he will get the recognition befitting the champion player and human being that he was.
Rest in peace my friend.

Virgil

<img src="http://www.espncricinfo.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/235600/235623.jpg" alt="235623.jpg">
 
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56.02 Crowe's average in his first-class career, scoring 19608 runs in 412 innings. Among 469 batsmen who aggregated 15,000 or more runs in first-class cricket, only ten others had a better average than Crowe's. He made 71 centuries in his first-class career which is the second-most among all New Zealand cricketers behind <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/India/content/player/38622.html'>Turner's 103</a>. Crowe had a great ability of converting fifties into hundreds. His ratio of centuries to half-centuries in first-class career was 0.88 (71 centuries and 80 half-centuries). Among 166 players who scored 50 or more centuries, only the legendary <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/India/content/player/4188.html'>Bradman</a> (1.69) and <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/14022.html'>Wally Hammond</a> (0.90) had a better ratio than Crowe. In Tests also, Crowe made 17 centuries and only 18 half-centuries, which puts him eighth among the 71 batsmen with 15 or more centuries in terms of that ratio.
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canefan

My last memory of him was the ICC induction during the CWC. Barely anyone had left the stands in the innings break and we rose to applaud as one while Crowe stood on Eden Park soaking up the adulation as his tears flowed. It brought a lump to the throat and I became acutely aware of the dust swirling through the South stand. I'm glad he had that moment before he passed away

Siam

From the photos and highlights, I just noticed that in the 92 world cup we couldn't even get the same colour for our trousers and tops uniform - "she'll be right, close enough" :)
 
<img src="http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/a/5/a/b/3/image.gallery.galleryLandscape.600x400.1a5aop.png/1456976188280.jpg" alt="1456976188280.jpg">

canefan

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Siam" data-cid="562307" data-time="1457067380">From the photos and highlights, I just noticed that in the 92 world cup we couldn't even get the same colour for our trousers and tops uniform - "she'll be right, close enough" :) 
 <img src="http://www.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/a/5/a/b/3/image.gallery.galleryLandscape.600x400.1a5aop.png/1456976188280.jpg" alt="1456976188280.jpg"></blockquote>I missed out buying one of the replica shirts during the CWC15, now they are not available. CCC should have brought them out again for sale during the summer series

Donsteppa

I loved Crowe the player, was irritated by the "HOLY COW HALF A DOZEN!!!!!" version of the commentator, but loved listening to him talk about cricket. 
One test against Oz in Oz in the mid/late 2000's was going predictably shithouse. We were doing badly and the Oz commentators weren't holding back. The lunchtime session on ABC Grandstand involved an interview with Crowe. I was listening to it on the bike while cycling around Hamilton East, and long since I've forgotten the specifics of what he said, two things stuck out for me;

I learnt far more about the art of batting in those 30 minutes than I had from all other commentators combined in the previous few years
And what really caught my attention was the reverence and genuine interest the ABC team had in what Crowe had to say. After listening to their general reaction to the Black Caps players all test, suddenly they were treating a Kiwi as if they were interviewing a Bradman/Chappell/Lillee/Ponting/Border/Waugh level of cricketing legend. 
At the time I remember thinking that we'd always appreciated just how outstanding Hadlee was, but maybe (for a while) Crowe was better appreciated offshore. 
(That, and the Aussie hard nosed cricket approach - treat everyone with disdain - no matter how good they are - until they perform against Oz in Oz. And then when they score 188 at the Gabba and beat Oz by an innings, they suddenly become a small god )

Rancid Schnitzel

Made a rare incursion into Twitter to read some tributes. Huge dust cloud came through while I was reading. I just brings back so many brilliant memories. 
You know I've always liked rugby more than cricket, but Martin Crowe was the guy I wanted to be. Gone too soon.

Siam

Yeah gone way too soon. 
It's about now I'm devastated that we will no longer enjoy his cricket analysis and inputs. Not fair 
If there is a god then he's a fuckwit

Siam

From Mark Nicholas writing for cricinfo: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/978251.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/978251.html</a>
 
This is an email from Hogan in January this year:
 
Suddenly, out of nowhere last month, an email was sent to Jeff and me. Through the haze and drugs of pain-relief it talked cricket again, a final offering to the game. This, tweaked here and there, is Martin Crowe's Blackstar (the last David Bowie album).
Jeff is convinced it was meant for the world.
 
<blockquote>"First ball: off the long, eternal run.
 
People in administration (the good and the ones doing their best but not reading the brief properly) come and go, you know, a cyclical thing. And so Srinivasan has gladly departed and Giles Clarke's time is waning. Interestingly Cricket Australia are beautifully on the front foot and, for daring measure, are even dancing down like yesteryear, such is their new found confidence at the helm. A year on from creating a stinky breakaway, the garden smells rosier again and it is grand to see a potential shift back to the central truth. The Big Three were rightly targeted by an aggressive media, who saw the poor getting poorer fast and the divi up unfair and unsubtle. Bye bye Srini. This first, fast curving first ball was you.
Second ball: respectful, 4th stump, consolidation of line & length.
Davie Warner has a second child, named Indi, very cool and diplomatic. He also has a damn good respect for the game too. Nothing but goodwill coming from the Warner Family in recent times. As a result, a heap of focus on notching up daddy ton and,take note, he stands in waiting for the most important office in Oz. Yes, sad that Brad Had got mad and didn't see the exit sign with a smiley face flashing brightly as he departed. That being so, my sympathies with him around his family hardships through a period where there is no escape. It's a hard act to please all. But that's what almost all individuals have done over the last year, governed by strong leaders who have instructed their teams to forgive and forget. Thus they inspired youngsters and their families to follow this vital advertisement for cricket as we all reeled and mourned Phil Hughes. That ball grew us up real fast.
Third ball: pink this one and swinging late, then seaming and bouncing, all under a darkening sky and a floodlit stadium.
Pink balls need greasy conditions, apparently, to make it last the correct amount of overs. I say leave the pitch alone and decide over a few tests on a mark when a second new pinkie is needed. Patience, and a few more games, then the mark will become clearer - as opposed to juicing up conditions which dramatically alter the landscape. The purpose is defeated if manipulation comes first over mystery. Easily fixed in time. Yet, I believe, the horse has already bolted with Test cricket. By not sticking with the proposed test championship concept set down for 2017, the chance, the obvious window, the golden egg, has gone. Not that it won't be tried sometime, but the die is cast on test cricket - it's dumbing down and mediocre standard of participation. It has historic meaning still but has become costly and slow, and has been overtaken by T20. The West Indies have fallen, but they will rise again for sure, dressed in full 3-hour action gear.
Fourth ball: leg-spin mode and spinning fast from leg, a side where a boundary sits obsolete with no chance of catches from a top-edge off these modern bats - the fans are as busy now looking to claim (and protect family from) those skiers, as busy as any outfielder has been.
Ten years ago, Australia played NZ in the first ever Twenty20 International at Eden Park. Thirty-thousand turned up on a balmy night and saw Ricky Ponting, a true great, irresistibly caress the ball to all and sundry for 98 glorious runs. In the com box we wondered, and worried a touch too, about the effect this would have long term - on everything.
As the leg spin is released, forget our long term musings because that momentous wonder we had way back has just hit home. When I read Stephen Flemings quote about 80,883 attending the Big Bash derby match at the MCG on Jan 2, between the Stars in green and the Renegades in red, I felt it. Fleming, not one for throwaway attention, made a call that was forthright and honest, yet said clearly to state a moment in time for all to take notice. "To have more than 80,000 at a domestic match [outside of India] will send absolute shockwaves through the cricketing world".
Cricket Australia, who for long periods of the game's history has been a leading light, had had a quiet time lately. But not any more. When you can invite that humongously friendly family support to watch a three hour game, with supreme facilities, and not just break crowd records but obliterate them, then you get what Fleming is saying. It will only get bigger and better. Meaning something else won't.
Fifth ball: chucked, over-stepped, and lethal in its intent.
And so it took a renegade, Chris Gayle, to take centre stage next, sending another shockwave into the ether via a boundary line interview with a female journalist. The effect of the content delivered by Gayle was undeniable and created a din and a reaction so strong everyone took notice. It reminded us of our greatest wake-up in humanity - the need to see the end of blatant discrimination. Worst of all, it was live on air, rammed down a close up camera, hitting us at the family home or a community gathering somewhere. Young children were watching, transfixed to the exciting energy that Fleming passionately expressed. This need never happen again around cricket. Instantly, I sided with the Stars above and condemned the Renegades.
Final delivery: normal light is fading, dinner is in the air, families gather. Lights are on to full effect.
Another T20 match is about to begin. Many of them now, all around the globe. All of them in properly bona fide competitions with a massive following throughout, often night upon night in prime time television, always aiming to deliver a dose of fun and fever and a winner crowned at the end. And cleverly, everyone has deemed that all is needed to make the ground full is a Family and Friend Pass, at forty or fifty bucks, ensuring folk come together. Just buy a pass and roll on up. By making up numbers to fill the pass, the admin continue to fill the fans seats and all benefit. And, as the younger wannabe man-fan readies himself for another sizzling fast head-high crowd-catch the family flavour rises to fever pitch.
The future of cricket far into the night is safe and sound. By virtue of the game settling into proper competition, well marketed towards a family environment that ensures - no, guarantees - value for all. Meanwhile a test match, searching for connection to a fast-moving modern world, is played somewhere but without enough context or support, and with dwindling hope for its own future. How can they who rule the game have done this?! Australia must act again if no one else will.
Twenty20 - as Fleming said on 2nd January, 2016 - created a wave and no-one has got off the ride that might well have to sustain the game eternally. With a tweak here and there..."
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SammyC

Piss poor 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/77584757/Liam-Napier-Choosing-golf-over-Martin-Crowes-funeral-not-a-good-look'>http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/77584757/Liam-Napier-Choosing-golf-over-Martin-Crowes-funeral-not-a-good-look</a>

booboo

Piss poor that it's even a thing? 
Gutter level reporting if you ask me

SammyC

Nope piss poor that these guys can't cancel an appearance at a celebrity golf tournament to attend.

booboo

And fuck up a huge event that had been planned for months and cost millions? 
I respectfully disagree. 
Funerals I've found are about the attendees and their process of dealing with their grief. 
Attendance or otherwise at a funeral is a personal choice and made for many and varied reasons. Expectation of the media and public to publicly bare your emotions shouldn't be one of them. Pre-existing commitments however... 
And really does Martin mind?

SammyC

Yeah because the whole event is completely fucked if a few celebrity cricketers can't play a round with some rich businessmen.

Mokey

Just read that article, Boo, and I agree.
 
People grieve in their own way, and I can imagine there will be many glasses raised in a variety of locations tonight.
 
Martin was an international sportsman and commentator. He would understand better than anyone, that even though it sucks arse to miss something important, commitments are commitments. Besides, I'd say he knew exactly who his closest friends and loved ones were and how they felt. Also, who might jump on a bandwagon.

Paekakboyz

Wonder if the author has attended every wedding he's been invited to, or if he's ever had to miss a funeral...

Rembrandt

Being in the UK for a few years I had to make decisions on what events back home I would make a special trip for. Funerals never made the list. The person is already gone I would rather spend positive time with people still here and tribute to lost ones lives in my own way. Its personal choice and this reporting is repugnant, I see another stuff headline about Russell Crowe not making it..getting pretty damn sick of stuff.co.nz

Godder

Don't know if they'll do it, but it's entirely possible to stream/skype/videoconference the ceremony so others can watch or take part from afar. That could be an option.

The Silver Fern

RIP Martin Crowe