Peter White: Crowe a master batsman and pleasure to watch

Martin Crowe is regarded as New Zealand's greatest batsman of all time.

The passing of Martin Crowe last Thursday at the age of 53 touched the hearts and minds of cricket fans all over the world.

He was a tortured genius in many ways but the best batsman we have ever produced. Martin Donnelly, Bert Sutcliffe, John R Reid, Glenn Turner, Stephen Fleming, Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson were the best players of their generations but Crowe was better than them all.

No matter how many records Tauranga's own prodigy Williamson breaks, he will be the first to say he is not in the same class as M D Crowe. He will never have the swagger, the physical presence at the crease or the sheer poetry in motion of Crowe's elegant strokeplay.

Crowe's haul of 5444 test runs at 45.36 is third on the New Zealand all-time list but his 17 test centuries are still the benchmark for Williamson (13) and Taylor (13) to emulate.

But as always, statistics only tell half the story. Crowe had a poor start and finish to his test career. He was rushed into the team aged 19 and took 31 tests to get his average up to 30 and the debilitating knee injury that ended his career at the age of 33 hampered his masterful footwork at the end.

At the height of his powers between 1985 and 1991 he averaged 58.46 in tests and scored 12 centuries. He was rated as the best batsman in the world ahead of Allan Border, Graham Gooch, Javed Miandad and Richie Richardson.

Crowe's performances are extra special because of the era he played in. To watch Crowe in the 1980s batting against arguably the fiercest pace bowling attacks in the game's history from the West Indies and Pakistan was exhilarating. No one then or since played the on-drive or pull stroke as well as Crowe did, on pitches often below today's standards.

Williamson and Taylor plunder the hapless West Indies bowlers like they were a club attack. There is absolutely no comparison with what Crowe faced. He played some of his finest innings against Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft and co.

For younger Black Caps fans imagine facing four guys as quick as Adam Milne but much, much nastier characters to face.

In 1985 Crowe held the West Indies at bay for nine hours to score 188 and draw a test in Guyana. That same year he scored 188 against Australia at the Gabba that was so technically perfect the great Australian Alan Border still raves about it. In 1987 he scored two centuries against the fearsome West Indies in the home series and in 1991 he made 299 against Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve.

So many great knocks, so many great memories.

Crowe scored 456 runs averaging 114 at the 1992 World Cup, easily the most by any batsman there, and set the cricketing world alight with his innovative captaincy. For good measure he invented Cricket Max, the blueprint of today's Twenty20 game.

Crowe rated his two centuries at Lord's in 1986 and 1994 as his major career highlights. I am so grateful I was there to witness both extraordinary examples of batting. The workman-like accumulation of runs off his pads and backward of point, the dead straight bat in defence, the signature cover and on-drives, and ferocious pull shots to and over the boundary rope.

He was one player Sir Richard Hadlee never dismissed.

RIP Hogan. It was a pleasure to watch you bat. Thanks for the memories.