Martin Crowe

Martin David Crowe, MBE (born 22 September 1962 in Henderson, New Zealand), is a former New Zealand cricketer, commentator and author. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1985, and was credited as one of the "best young batsmen in the world". A right-handed batsman, Crowe represented New Zealand from the early 1980s until his retirement in 1996.Through the early part of his career he was also a medium-pace bowler. He captained New Zealand in the early 1990s, and during this period he brought many innovations, such as opening with spin bowlers and utilising pinch hitting batsmen. In 2012 it was revealed that Crowe was suffering from lymphoma.

Martin Crowe

Personal information
Full name	Martin David Crowe
Born	22 September 1962 (age 51) Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
Relations	Dave Crowe (father) Jeff Crowe(brother) Russell Crowe (cousin)
International information
National side	New Zealand
Test debut	26 February 1982 v Australia
Last Test	12 November 1995 v India
ODI debut	13 February 1982 v Australia
Last ODI	26 November 1995 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1979–1983	Auckland
1983–1990	Central Districts
1984–1988	Somerset
1990–1995	Wellington
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC List-A Matches 77 143 247 261 Runs scored 5444 4704 19608 8740 Batting average 45.36 38.55 56.02 38.16 100s/50s 17/18 4/34 71/80 11/59 Top score 299 107* 299 155* Balls bowled 1377 954 4010 2859 Wickets 14 29 119 99 Bowling average 48.28 32.89 99.69 28.87 5 wickets in innings 0 0 4 0 10 wickets in match 0 – 0 – Best bowling 2/25 2/9 5/18 4/24 Catches/stumpings 71/0 66/0 226/0 115/0

Early life

Crowe was born in September 1962 in Henderson, Auckland, to Dave Crowe, a former New Zealand domestic cricketer. Crowe's brother, Jeff, also represented and captained New Zealand at international level, and both are cousins of actor Russell Crowe.

Domestic cricket

Crowe represented four domestic cricket teams in his career, Auckland, Central Districts, Somerset and Wellington. He scored nearly 20,000 first-class runs, with 71 centuries. His average of 56.02 is one of the highest first-class averages of all time.

International career

Martin Crowe's test match performance graph.

Crowe played 77 test matches, averaging 45.65 with the bat, including 17 centuries and 18 half-centuries. He also played 143 One Day International, averaging 38.55, and hit four centuries and 34 half-centuries. In 1991, he shared a 467-run partnership with Andrew Jones, at the time the highest partnership in Test history and in 2009 remained the third highest. Crowe was dismissed on 299, the highest innings by a New Zealander in Test history.Inzamam-ul-Haq considers him to be one of the three best batsmen he has seen along with Viv Richards and Ricky Ponting.

He also made the highest number of runs in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, in which New Zealand came first in the league round before losing to fourth-qualified Pakistan in the semifinal.

Whilst captaining in the 1992 World Cup, New Zealand lost only two matches. Former captain of Pakistan cricket team, Rameez Raja said

Martin Crowe was an imaginative leader who maximized his team's potential and resources by thoughtful captaincy and out-of-the-box tactics to flummox oppositions. He used the local conditions brilliantly and made the opposition think and admit to New Zealand's presence in the 1992 World Cup. His famous trick was Dipak Patel with the new ball, which turned out to be a master stroke, a move that was tailor-made to extract advantage out of New Zealand pitches and it stunned the opposition with a bit of drama as well. The off spinner showed great control with the new ball and bowled an aggressive line to pick up wickets.

In the 1992 New Year Honours, Crowe was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket.

Coaching

After his retirement, Crowe helped develop a local variation of cricket, called "Cricket Max", and became a television commentator and pundit. He is currently a board member of the South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League Football Club which Russell Crowe is part owner of. He was roped in as the CEO into the management team of Royal Challengers Bangalore, a team in the Indian Premier League. Midway through the season the owner Vijay Mallya expressed displeasure over the team and its performance in the league by sacking its bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and mentor Charu Sharma blaming them for dismal team performance. Later in October of the same year, Crowe parted ways with the team and brought in Ray Jennings, the former coach of the South African National Cricket Team as the head coach of the team. Sources suggested that Mallya was unhappy with the team he had and held Crowe and his management team responsible for the debacle.

Comeback

On 19 May 2011, Crowe commented on Twitter that he wanted to improve his fitness by setting a goal to play first-class cricket again. He cited that he is only 3 first-class matches from 250, and 392 runs short of 20,000 runs.

Crowe took his first step to playing first-class cricket by playing at club level at the age of 49 (he was due to debut much earlier, but was delayed due to a groin injury). He played for the Cornwall reserve grade team, captaining them and batting at No.3 against Papatoetoe in a second-division club match in Auckland.

Personal life

In 2009 Crowe married former Miss Universe Lorraine Downes.

In 2010, Crowe set up College 1st XV Rugby on the Rugby Channel which is still being covered weekly during New Zealand winters.

On 15 October 2012, it was revealed that Crowe had been diagnosed with Lymphoma. He blamed the illness on a failing immune system, weakened by various illnesses picked up while touring the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

On 5 June 2013, Crowe had announced that he is free of cancer on Campbell Live, but he will cut his ties with cricket, as he was a self-proclaimed "recovering addict to cricket, much like an alcoholic". Crowe says he wore a 'mask' from the age of 22, due to high expectations, but at the age of 51 was happy to 'look at the real me'.