Martin Crowe

Martin David Crowe, MBE 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.

Career

Crowe made his first class debut for Auckland against Canturbury aged 17. He scored 51. 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.

Crowe played 77 test matches, averaging 45.65 with the bat, including 17 centuries and 18 half-centuries. He also played 143 One Day Internationals, 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,until 2014 when Brendon McCullum became the first New Zealander to score a Test Triple Century. Inzamam-ul-Haq considered 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 World Cup, New Zealand lost only two matches. In the 1992 New Year Honours, Crowe was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket.

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 was only 3 first-class matches away from 250 matches, 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 played for the Cornwall reserve grade team, captaining them and batting at No.3 against Papatoetoe in a second-division club match in Auckland.

On 28 February 2015, Crowe was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in an emotional ceremony during the lunch break of New Zealand's winning pool game against Australia during the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Statistics

Test Centuries

Martin Crowe's Test Centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	100	8	England	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1984	Drawn
2	188	21	West Indies	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	1985	Drawn
3	188	24	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	The Gabba	1985	Won
4	137	28	Australia	Christchurch, New Zealand	Lancaster Park	1986	Drawn
5	106	30	England	London, England	Lord's	1986	Drawn
6	119	33	West Indies	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1987	Drawn
7	104	34	West Indies	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1987	Lost
8	137	38	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	1987	Drawn
9	143	39	England	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1988	Drawn
10	174	40	Pakistan	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1989	Drawn
11	113	45	India	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1990	Drawn
12	108*	50	Pakistan	Lahore, Pakistan	Gadaafi Stadium	1990	Lost
13	299	52	Sri Lanka	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1991	Drawn
14	140	58	Zimbabwe	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1992	Won
15	107	60	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club	1992	Lost
16	142	66	England	London, England	Lord's	1994	Drawn
17	115	67	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	1994	Drawn

One Day International Centuries

Martin Crowe's One Day International Centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	105*	15	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1984	Won
2	104	83	India	Dunedin, New Zealand	Carisbrook	1990	Won
3	100*	114	Australia	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1992	Won
4	107*	140	India	Jamshedpur, India	Keenan Stadium	1995	Won