RIP Martin Crowe

Victor Meldrew

From the plethora of articles in the UK and world press, comments and tributes from people inside and outside the game, it's clear Martin Crowe was one of the most respected and special people to have played cricket. I just loved his articles on CricInfo - easily the best writer on modern cricket.in the last few years. 
 
This Guardian article sums it up:
 
"If our friendships are the best measure of our worth, then Martin Crowe must have been a great man. A better batsman even than his average signified, and a brighter thinker than his writing suggested. Crowe <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/03/martin-crowe-obituary'>died of lymphoma</a> last Thursday, at the age of 53. In the last five days he has received an extraordinary, almost unprecedented, number of exquisite tributes. In this paper, Mike Selvey spoke of Croweâ€™s <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/mar/03/martin-crowe-batting-master-craftsman-mike-selvey'>â€œethos of fair play, responsible behaviour and enjoymentâ€</a>, and admired the â€œrational fortitudeâ€ with which he faced his illness. Greg Chappell described <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/mar/04/martin-crowes-insatiable-curiosity-made-him-the-thinking-mans-cricketer'>Croweâ€™s enquiring mind</a>, his obvious â€œtalent and athleticismâ€, his â€œintelligence and desire to succeedâ€. In The Times, Mike Atherton wrote of â€œone of the gameâ€™s keenest mindsâ€, a man who stood up to â€œrampant ego, selfishness, boorishness, bullyingâ€.
 
They go on. On <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://cricketwithballs.com/2016/03/03/the-hero-who-wore-a-white-helmet/'>Cricket With Balls</a>, Jarrod Kimber marvelled at the perfection of Croweâ€™s batting, a â€œbeautifully illustrated coaching manual come to lifeâ€. In Wisden India, Dileep Premachandran described the <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-blog/martin-crowe-marked-by-nature-gone-too-soon/203067'>â€œunflinching honesty and vulnerabilityâ€</a> of Croweâ€™s writing. Cricinfo, where Crowe did much of that writing, surpassed itself and everyone else. <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/978251.html'>Mark Nicholas wrote</a> that Crowe had become â€œan irresistible conscience for those of us left behindâ€. Ed Smith <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/978855.html'>addressed Croweâ€™s two lives</a>, the first as an â€œeffortless technicianâ€, â€œmajestic and lordlyâ€, the other as a thinker, â€œequally deft and assuredâ€. And then there was Gideon Haigh, <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/890241.html'>whose eulogy for Crowe</a> was too fine to fillet for a single line:
 
Martinâ€™s love of cricket was fathomless: so passionate he needed to break from it from time to time; so profound he always found his way back to the fold. His great theme in the last while was anger and ill-feeling on the cricket field. The world was so full of it; why could cricket not provide some sort of refuge, a better example?
 
Few cricketers have received so many moving tributes, or provoked such an out-pouring of fine and thoughtful praise. Each article is affecting when read on its own, and taken all together the collection is entirely overwhelming. In death Crowe inspired the best of his colleagues in the press box, just as in life he once inspired it in his team-mates on the field. The sorrow of it is that he wasnâ€™t around to read all these words, but you hope they will provide some solace for his family in their grief. Crowe seems to have touched so many people. There are others, too: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/story/977969.html'>the men he played with and against</a>, and the ones he mentored once he was done. 
 
As for the man himself, it feels like thereâ€™s little left to add, least of all from those, like me, who only knew him from what theyâ€™d seen or read on page and screen. Because, aside from their subject, the one thing that each of these articles shared was that their writers had a personal connection to Crowe. Selvey and Chappell both spoke of seeing him for a final time in New Zealand. Kimber mentioned meeting him in India. Smith, Atherton and Premachandran referred to their email conversations. Haigh and Nicholas talked at length about their friendships with him, Nicholasâ€™s forged early in Croweâ€™s playing days, when he was still a student, and Haighâ€™s made long after Crowe had quit playing, though not studying, the game. Friendships forged on cricket fields can sometimes seem just a little stronger and longer-lasting than those made elsewhere. And as Haigh says: â€œWith Martin there was no such thing as a trivial contact. Perhaps because it was his own aim, he made you want to be your best self.â€
 
Add them all up, and they serve as a remarkable testament to Croweâ€™s own qualities, and also to those of the game he loved so much. He shared that love with this disparate range of writers, from England, Australia, and India, some young, others old, some great Test players, others strictly amateur, all equally smitten with cricket. Croweâ€™s memory, like the sport, is so well-served by such an array of fine minds and talented writers. The internet has made so many publications from so many different places so much more accessible that readers are spoiled for choice.
 
Had Crowe been able to read any of these tributes, he would have been delighted, you guess, not only by the praise for his own batting, captaincy, and writing, but also the way in which his passing provoked such an expression of love for the sport itself, and so brilliantly illustrated the way in which so many people, from so many different parts, are bound together by their mutual enthusiasm for it. â€œWhat we can strive for is to restore our sportâ€™s lost integrity and loving feeling, so the fans can be lifted once more from their daily grind,â€ Crowe wrote <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/875999.html'>in his final column</a>. â€œInternational cricket, nation v nation, is about patriotism and a bit of tribalism, but not hate.â€ His death seems, for a time, to have bought the community around cricket just a little closer together, united as so many people in their feelings for him"

Virgil

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Number 10" data-cid="563312" data-time="1457461097">In 1987 Crowe became one of only a handful of men to score 4000 first-class runs in a calendar year. 
Someone with a 1988 NZ Cricket Almanack would probably find this in the Happenings section of the Almanack.</blockquote>
 
Not bad for a 'very good' batsman

MN5

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="563308" data-time="1457457749">
<div>
Mike Atherton pointed out in the Times on the weekend he sits 15th post war on the 1st class averages list.
 
Ponting is 16th. Dravid 18th & Barry Richards 22nd.
 
And in 1984 Somerset signed Crowe to cover for Viv Richards & Joel Garner who weren't available. Crowe scored 1,500 runs & also took 44 wickets. So 1986 they dropped Richards & Garner for Crowe. Ian Botham threw a hissy fit & left the county. Crowe responded by scoring 1,600 runs @ 67.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Beefy quit cos he objected to how two of his mates got treated. Hardly throwing a hissy fit.
 
While I risk the wrath of a good old internet tough guy diatribe from Virgil by saying this it's worth remembering that first class stats only tell part of the story, I used the examples of Hick and Ramprakash earlier, well over 200 first class hundreds between them, both averaging over 50 yet respective test averages of 31 and 27 ( I was surprised Ramprakash played 52 tests, that's a shitload of chances to improve that he never took, I do remember Hick looking majestic when on song though ). Does that accumulation make them better than Crowe who "only" made 71? of course it doesn't. But you guys are using these arguments to support Crowe compared to other guys who may not have plundered runs at county level but who arguably did it better at test level which is of course the ultimate pinnacle of the sport.

taniwharugby

If Crowe played for WI you'd still have a pic of him on your wall MN5!

Virgil

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="563331" data-time="1457471147">If Crowe played for WI you'd still have a pic of him on your wall MN5!</blockquote>
 
And a waste basket full of used tissues...

MN5

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="563331" data-time="1457471147">
<div>
If Crowe played for WI you'd still have a pic of him on your wall MN5!
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</blockquote>
 
I knew you two dickwads would descend into the same tired old Windies wanking "jokes", I thought I made some pretty salient points.
 
Besides it's totally innaccurate, I only go for left handers.....aw apart from Viv Richards and Richie Richardson.

Virgil

Stop being such a piston wristed gibbon

Donsteppa

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="563327" data-time="1457470525">
<div>
Blah blah blah, Hick, Ramprakash, blah blah blah, honestly, I love Crowe really, but blah blah blah, Beefy quit, clearly not a hissy fit, blah blah, clichÃ© to justify self again, blah, internet tough guys blah blah blah 
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</blockquote>
 
[/stuck record hour] 
 
I'm surprised you haven't found a way to say Crowe was too short to bowl spin... :)

MN5

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Donsteppa" data-cid="563417" data-time="1457486014">
<div>
[/stuck record hour] 
 
I'm surprised you haven't found a way to say Crowe was too short to bowl spin... :)
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</blockquote>
 
You left out Hadlee being our only truly world class player and Cairns being a shoe in for our all time test XI.
 
Crowe was definitely the best international rep for Advanced Hair you could hope for though.
 
Graham Gooch, Greg Matthews and Warnie didn't have shit on him.

gollum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="563327" data-time="1457470525">
<div>
Beefy quit cos he objected to how two of his mates got treated. Hardly throwing a hissy fit.
 
While I risk the wrath of a good old internet tough guy diatribe from Virgil by saying this it's worth remembering that first class stats only tell part of the story, I used the examples of Hick and Ramprakash earlier, well over 200 first class hundreds between them, both averaging over 50 yet respective test averages of 31 and 27 ( I was surprised Ramprakash played 52 tests, that's a shitload of chances to improve that he never took, I do remember Hick looking majestic when on song though ). Does that accumulation make them better than Crowe who "only" made 71? of course it doesn't. But you guys are using these arguments to support Crowe compared to other guys who may not have plundered runs at county level but who arguably did it better at test level which is of course the ultimate pinnacle of the sport.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
Ok, so much wrong with this but -
 
1) Hick played 526 1st class games, Ramps 461. Crowe 247. And weirdly, Crowe scored less 100's! Add to that Crowe has a significantly better 100 / inning ration than those 2. So even if that arguement weren't retarded. Its wrong.
 
2) The test of class would be great 1st class record, how did he go in tests? Hick & Ramps - great 1st class (although notably a long way south of Crowe on the all time lists), piss poor tests. Crowe, 15th all time 1st class, test tons v 7 test sides, average of 57 v the Pakistan of Imran, Wasim, Waqar & Qadir, 48 v aussie, no. 1 ranked batsman in the world at one stage etc. See the subtle difference?
 
I don't think anyone has ever called Crowe a great based on ONE area (1st class, tests, captainbcy, ODI's). What makes him a great is he delivered across all of them. Who has been written off by the Fern after being top 10 in tests (let alone no. 1) because his 1st class record is poor? 
 
And yes, beefy threw a hissy fit. Its legendary in country cricket the degree to which he threw his toys

Catogrande

To be fair to MN5 (God I feel dirty now) his comparison of Crowe to hick and Ramprakash was ONLY in response to someone else banging on about Crowe's FC record rather than his test record. I don't see that he was actually comparing them to Crowe in terms of ability, just that a good FC record does not naturally make a player a great. Which IMO Crowe most definitely was.
 
Beefy's hissy fit (well fits really - he had a few) was/are legendary but this particular hissy fit was not in regard to Crowe it was purely the way Richards and Garner were treated by Somerset, which was pretty shabby.

gollum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Catogrande" data-cid="563481" data-time="1457521199">
<div>
 
 
Beefy's hissy fit (well fits really - he had a few) was/are legendary but this particular hissy fit was not in regard to Crowe it was purely the way Richards and Garner were treated by Somerset, which was pretty shabby.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
It said a lot about Beefy too in that he'd been negotiating with Warikishire to move there for a big payday then Garner & Viv got their contracts not renewed & he left Somerset "on principle". He had always been going & going purely for money, the Viv / Garner issue just let him imply it was spur of the moment because he stands by his mates. As opposed to what he'd been negotiating for months which was to piss off for more cash & leave his mates hanging.

Catogrande

Well I'd not heard that one before Gollum. If true, why did he not go to Warwickshire?

gollum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Catogrande" data-cid="563484" data-time="1457523050">
<div>
Well I'd not heard that one before Gollum. If true, why did he not go to Warwickshire?
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</blockquote>
 
Sorry Wooster not Warks
 
I knew it started with W. I'm going off Atherton in the Times this week when discussing Crowe.

Siam

Yeah Beefy chucked a fair old one towards Roebuck and Crowe was slight collateral damage
 
Roebuck was a fine cricket writer too....comparisons end about there though

Siam

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="563006" data-time="1457313946">
<div>
 
On a World stage was he one of the best ? that's debatable, from his era that's an honour I'd bestow on the likes of Border, Gavaskar, Miandad, Richards.......
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</blockquote>
 
I'm sure you've got a point MN5, but you can't go around writing sentences like this...
 
Yes, he most certainly was one of the best

Virgil

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="563478" data-time="1457517742">Ok, so much wrong with this but -

Hick played 526 1st class games, Ramps 461. Crowe 247. And weirdly, Crowe scored less 100's! Add to that Crowe has a significantly better 100 / inning ration than those 2. So even if that arguement weren't retarded. Its wrong.
The test of class would be great 1st class record, how did he go in tests? Hick & Ramps - great 1st class (although notably a long way south of Crowe on the all time lists), piss poor tests. Crowe, 15th all time 1st class, test tons v 7 test sides, average of 57 v the Pakistan of Imran, Wasim, Waqar & Qadir, 48 v aussie, no. 1 ranked batsman in the world at one stage etc. See the subtle difference? 
I don't think anyone has ever called Crowe a great based on ONE area (1st class, tests, captainbcy, ODI's). What makes him a great is he delivered across all of them. Who has been written off by the Fern after being top 10 in tests (let alone no. 1) because his 1st class record is poor? 
And yes, beefy threw a hissy fit. Its legendary in country cricket the degree to which he threw his toys</blockquote>
 
I stood up and liked this post. 
Did anyone see the stat where Crowe has one of the best 100:50 ratios in FC cricket of all time? 
You have to be 6 kinds of blind to deny Crowe is not a great of the game, enforced by the fact most of the plaudits are coming from overseas. By other greats of the game.. A little known bowler called Wasim Akram ( actually one of the best if not best left armers the game has known) said Crowe was one of the best he ever bowled too. 
And he said that before Crowe died, it wasn't some lip service respect for a fallen cricketers bs like we got with Phil ( about to reclaim the Aussie opening spot and go on to be the greatest) Hughes. 
If you have read Crowes autobiographies and biographies you would have read for most of his career he carried the burden of expectation. 
Apart from a golden period in the mid 80s, for most of Crowes career we were shit. He batted mostly with guys who had a fraction of his talent, so if he failed NZ generally would fail. There were a lot of guys behind the scenes who didn't like Crowe and made his time as captain fucken tough. As well as tough for coaches like Warren Lees who he worked bloody well with. ( who should share a lot of the plaudits for the strategies from the 92 WC) 
The flash point was the bombing in Sri Lanka not long after the 92 WC. 
Half the team along with Lees came home, they had no choice really. But NZC treated them all fucken awfully. In the end Crowe was left carrying a team it's best player, stand in coach and selector. Making do with replacements who weren't ever going to be good enough. 
On top of all that he suffered from an undiagnosed ailment for several years that left him struggling for energy. He struggled for years with a serious knee injury, and as famously written he toured England in 94, scored 2 magnificent 100's basically playing on one leg. 
Fuck anyone who says he's not a great of the game.

Donsteppa

Cue MN5 finding another angle to downplay Crowe, before insisting that there's no way he's downplaying one of the best players we've ever had, you Internet Tough Guys.

Virgil

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Donsteppa" data-cid="563527" data-time="1457555809">Cue MN5 finding another angle to downplay Crowe, before insisting that there's no way he's downplaying one of the best players we've ever had, you Internet Tough Guys.</blockquote>
 
If Crowe was Scottish it would be different.

MN5

Shit, what an internet hiding, now I know how davidav and Paarlbok must have felt. Some of you had some very compelling arguments.
 
Without sounding like the ramblings of someone who's taken too many virtual punches and kicks do I dare mention that his test average is not even in the top 63 of all time ? ( I'd expand the stats more but cricinfo is playing up, it stops at 48 ) Is it in the top 100 ?
 
Did you fluffybunnys all miss the point I made when I said he's undeniably a kiwi great. Second name down on the team sheet. That's extremely high praise. 
 
Anyone going to his funeral or are you all playing golf instead ?

The Silver Fern

RIP Martin Crowe