Martin Crowe - R.I.P.!!!

The game will remember and thank him for many innovations that changed cricket the way we see it today.
One of the best players on the field and one of the very best off it, his contributions and innovations surpassed most of his contemporaries.
Introducing a spinner to open the bowling in an ODI would probably rank right at the top.
Not to forget, getting his openers to tonk the new ball rather than see it off is another.
The concept of a 'Free Hit' was his idea.

In a career that spanned 77 Tests and 143 one-day internationals, he tallied 21 centuries; 17 of which came in five-day cricket. He sits third on the run-scoring charts for New Zealand, and no Black Caps player has scored more Test centuries.

His average of 45.36 may not suggest greatness, but don’t be fooled, he played in a time when Dennis Lillee, Joel Garner and Michael Holding were at their best. He scored three centuries against the fearsome West Indies attack of the 1980s and three against trans-Tasman rivals Australia. That's greatness!!!

He wrote about 2 regrets, one for not taking the field (to rest his injured hamstring) in the 1992 semis and the second was to get dismissed on 299 in a Test match.
His selflessness was there to see when he wrote about how the demon of the Test match score was exorcised when McCullum scored a triple century and became the first Kiwi to do so.

Outside the field, he did take his digs at the so-called 'Big Three' of the game and was scathing in his criticism (which eventually turned out to be true).
Battled cancer, won once but ran out of steam the next time he got attacked.

Today, on his funeral day attended by over 800 people, students of his Alma Mater fm Auckland Grammar performed the traditional 'Haka' dance to bid a final goodbye for, who would be regarded, as one of the greatest to play the game.

Martin Crowe - R.I.P.!!!!!!