WELLINGTON: March 3, 2016: New Zealand’s great all-rounder Martin Crowe died on Wednesday, according to family members.
Crowe was 53-years-old and was suffering from cancer for a long time.
“It is with heavy hearts that the family of Martin Crowe, MBE, advise his death,” they said in a statement.
“Diagnosed in September 2014 with terminal double-hit lymphoma, he passed away peacefully today, March 3, in Auckland surrounded by family.”
Crowe was the most dynamic New Zealand captain. The country even reached the finals of the World Cup under him.
He played for NZ for 13-years from 1982-95. He led the Kiwi side for four years as captain.
Saddened to hear about the demise of 1 of my favourite batsman #MartinCrowe A great technician&an astute reader of the game.May his soul RIP
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) March 3, 2016
Former Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming hailed Martin Crowe as “one of our true greats”.
Many former and present cricketers took to Twitter to offer their condolence and respect to Martin Crowe.
He played 77 Tests and scored 5444 runs which were the highest for any player in New Zealand that time.
Very very sad morning. One of my fav cricketers, Martin Crowe passes away. Technically the best batsman of the post Gavaskar era. RIP
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) March 3, 2016
He played 173 One Day international games and scored 4704 runs.
He was also a right-hand slow bowler. He took 14 and 29 runs in Tests and ODIs respectively.
MArtin Crowe made his Test debut against Australia at Wellington in March 1982.