Auckland, March 4: Martin Crowe, arguably New Zealand’s greatest ever batsman, has passed away. He was 53.
Crowe was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, and although he announced a year later he was free of the disease, it returned in September of 2014.
One of cricket’s most graceful batsmen, Crowe made his Test debut against Australia in 1982 at the age of 19 – a call-up he later said came far too early – and he struggled in his early years of international cricket.
His first century came in his eighth Test, against England. He went on to reach triple figures on 17 occasions, the most by any New Zealander in Test cricket.
Crowe’s highest score came against Sri Lanka in 1991, a mammoth innings of 299 which will be marred by the ignominy of the dismissal – caught behind, one run short of a triple-century, off the bowling of Arjuna Ranatunga. It took 23 years for any Black Cap to record a higher score, the record standing until Brendon McCullum’s 302 against India in 2014.
Crowe captained New Zealand from 1990-93, and although his career was impacted by a chronic knee injury, he retired in 1995 as his country’s highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 5444 runs at an average of 45. McCullum and Stephen Fleming are the only Kiwis to have passed that mark since.
Crowe was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame last February, and before the World Cup Final between New Zealand and Australia, he wrote an article for Cricinfo in which he wrote the following passage affirming his love of New Zealand cricket:
Crowe is survived be his wife Lorraine Downes, daughter Emma and two step-children, Hilton and Jasmine.
