Martin Crowe – The Gladiator
In the movie Gladiator, Maximus gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum won the hearts of all the spectators. Martin Crowe often played the same role and won the hearts of millions by his artistic batting. Russell Crowe played the role of Gladiator in the movie and he is the parental cousin of Martin Crowe. They both studied at Auckland Grammar School where Martin Crowe was the deputy head boy and captained the school’s cricket team too. He made his First-class debut at the age of 16 and played Test cricket before his 20th birthday.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Unique Gift:
Martin Crowe had the rare gift of picking the line and length of the ball earlier than most of the batsmen. Very few batsmen in the world could pick the ball fraction of seconds earlier and the elite list contains the players like David Gower, Gundappa Viswanath and Brian Lara to name a few. This could be a reason, he played Reverse Swing better than any other batsmen in the world. Wasim Akram went on record and said he and Waqar used to get frustrated because they couldn’t pick his wicket. When the ball started reversing, Crowe played for inswing only with a straight bat. He never chased the ball and avoided nicking the away going deliveries.
Andy Roberts at Receiving End:
Roberts was playing for Leicestershire against Somerset in June 1984. He was up against a young bloke from New Zealand, Martin Crowe. He hit Roberts all over the park. Roberts was furious and tried to bowl bouncers, aiming at Crowe’s body but the youngster played magnificently. Crowe hit him six over his head which was a rare sight. Finally, Crowe got out at 190 and Roberts’s figure was none for 70 in 14 overs.
Embed from Getty Images1992 World cup:
Martin Crowe was the driving force behind the success of the New Zealand cricket team in the 1992 World Cup. He was the player of the tournament and scored highest runs (456) as well. Opening the bowling with Dipak Patel and sending pinch-hitter Greatbatch to open the innings was a masterstroke.
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Featured Image Credit: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner – CC BY-SA 2.0 (resized as per the need and changed the background)