In deference to Martin Crowe

NO, it wasn’t Sachin or Team India that got me baptised into cricket. My baby steps in the world of cricket started from somewhere in the mid of 1992 Benson & Hedges Cricket World Cup, when Martin Crowe suddenly piqued my curiosity with some of his knocks and I, all of 8 years ,started following him; started watching cricket and started loving it. Cricket for me was a player called Martin Crowe and I wanted NZ to win that world cup only because of him.  And I was extremely disappointed, my heart broke when one Inzimam ul Haq(whom I hated for a long time), took the game away from NZ and Crowe’s defiant 91 something innings went futile, after he left the field retired hurt. For a brief time during the World Cup he was not only the best batsman in the world, he was the best captain in the world.

Prior to Crowe’s feisty presence in my life, cricket for me meant nothing. I didn’t care much about any team or a certain Wonder boy(Sachin), whom the English fondly called Diego, bursting into national consciousness. Cricket didn’t even exist as a passing mention in my conscious; I didn’t play it either. If I can recall that 1 moment, that shepherded me into following cricket and determinedly playing the game,  it was the charismatic Martin Crowe’s 1992 World Cup who for the 8 year old  me, could do nothing wrong. Cricket for me was an acquired taste and Crowe is the reason.

With time, I learnt how Crowe revolutionised cricket in that world cup which other countries would soon follow and become a common practice. Opening the batting order with Mark Greatbatch, an unusual position for him, where opening batsmen were expected to see off the new ball rather than dent it. to take gains from the field restrictions with his slogging and opening the bowling with spinner Deepak Patel, with mixed results, were unheard of gambits and bespoke his fascination for the bold and the unconventional. Crowe laid the foundations for the rise of Twenty20 cricket and inspired a nation with his captaincy.

Martin Crowe is singularly the reason for me playing cricket, playing it pretty decent, for being honest in the game and for chaperoning the guileless me to the world of cricket.