Batting legend Martin Crowe was inducted into cricket's Hall of Fame during a moving ceremony yesterday at the Black Caps epic battle in the Cricket World Cup.
The 52-year-old Aucklander received a standing ovation in front of a full house at Eden Park, a ground he made his own during the Cricket World Cup of 1992.
Crowe becomes the third New Zealander to gain a place in the Hall, alongside Sir Richard Hadlee and Debbie Hockley. He is, he noted with a chuckle, the first North Islander.
Just for a moment it must have felt like somebody had hit the rewind button as the crowd rose to acknowledge not just one of the greats of cricket, but also one of New Zealand's sporting giants.
Crowe, who is suffering from double-hit lymphona, a terminal cancer, was clearly moved, thanking his late father Dave and mother Audrey for their "unbending devotion" to family and cricket.
