Editorial: Captain courageous wins hearts

Wednesday's Legends of Cricket Art Deco Match. Photo / Paul Taylor

Author Bill Bryson said he disagreed that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavours look interesting and lively - "that was merely an unintended side effect".

He went on to say it's the only sport with meal breaks, the only sport that shares a name with an insect and the only sport where spectators burn more calories than players.

One can only assume he was talking test cricket.

And one can only assume he was never witness to anything like the inspired show at Wednesday's Legends of Cricket Art Deco Match which, as compere Wayne Mowat said, was "quite a thing".

Clifton County Cricket Club's pitch presented like a scene off Field of Dreams, a verdant-green turf that materialised from hectares of painfully dry farmland.

Credit has to go Hawke's Bay Tourism, the landowners and the club, who rendered the event unforgettable.

The place was a mecca for former Black Caps and rival internationals.

But of all of them, one stole the show.

Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, critically ill with a rare blood disease, added a poignant note to the otherwise jovial proceedings. During his address he conceded tomorrow's Black Caps versus Australia game would be the only world cup match he'd get to. Incidentally, the transtasman foe was the same team he made his international debut against in 1982, at the age of 19.

The match, he conceded, would constitute the "bookend" to his cricketing career.

In saying so, he elevated tomorrow's fixture to something much more than simply the clash of the tournament.