Martin David Crowe: The greatest batsman and captain in the cricket history of New Zealand

Martin Crowe hailed from the family of cricketers. His elder brother Jeff Crowe and father Dave played for the New Zealand team. He has 39 Tests and 75 ODIs in his credit. He was a well-known ICC match- referee.

Early international career

Crowe was born on September 22, 1962. He made his Test debut in 1982, when he was just 19 years of age, against Australia, at Wellington. He had already made his ODI debut just one month earlier against the same team. His Test match performance was not much up to the mark, but in his ODI debut, he earned a good reputation and proved that he would be one of the best young batsmen of the future.

In 1991, while playing a Test against Sri Lanka, Crowe made history by adding 467 runs in the partnership of Andrew Jones for the third wicket. It was the record of the alliance, which was later broken by Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Crowe missed becoming the first New Zealander to hit Test triple century just by one run (299) playing against India.

World Cup Career

In the World Cup 1992, Crowe had a golden run. His scoring in the nine matches was surprising. He became the highest scorer of the tournament with 456 runs in 9 games at an average of 114. Thanks to his remarkable performances, New Zealand made their way to the semi-final. In the same tournament, the Man of the Tournament got introduced in the World Cup cricket. Crowe became the first cricketer to win this Trophy.

Domestic and international cricket career

Crowe played domestic cricket for almost two decades and represented four cricket teams. He scored nearly 20,000 runs with 71 centuries and 80 half-centuries. His batting average in the 50 innings is the highest with 56.02.

Crowe had 77 Tests and 143 ODIs in his credit. His scoring in the Test cricket is 5,444 runs at an average of 45.36. He stands number three in his scoring, after skippers Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum. His scoring in ODIs is equally good, with 4,704 runs at an average of 38.55.

Post-retirement

For a brief period, Crowe became a TV cricket commentator. He also took up the job of CEO of the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a short period.

Martin Crowe decided to come back to competitive cricket in 2011, after the gap of 15 years. It was a surprise to many, as earlier he had an injury-troubled career. He then scored 392 runs to make a 20,000-run record in First-Class cricket. He could not have his dream fulfilled as he returned hurt just after three balls into the first innings. This great New Zealand cricketer died battling against cancer on March 4, 2016.

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