He’s 49, has a dodgy right knee, and retired from the game sixteen years ago. But none of that deterred New Zealand legend Martin Crowe from making his much-heralded comeback to serious club cricket. On Saturday Crowe captained the first-grade reserves of Cornwall CC in Auckland, and has set his sights on a return to the Auckland side proper, and even an appearance for the MCC in their English season curtain-raiser against Lancashire in Abu Dhabi next March. Along the way he hopes to...
What’s happened to New Zealand?
As a child of the 1980s, I grew up in a world in which New Zealand were a very competitive side, and usually stronger than England. In 1980 they beat the mighty West Indies, who wouldn’t lose another test series for the next fifteen years. Mid-decade, they beat us home and away in consecutive series. Martin Crowe was at the peak of his powers, and Richard Hadlee sent a shiver down the spine of test batsmen the world over. Nowadays, it’s a different story. We might be used now to...