Martin Crowe up against it

From Today's Guardian:

New Zealand’s former captain Martin Crowe, who is terminally ill with lymphoma, has penned a moving tribute to his countrymen ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final.

In a column published on Cricinfo, the 52-year-old said Sunday’s match at the MCG might be the last he ever sees.

“My precarious life ahead may not afford me the luxury of many more games to watch and enjoy,” Crowe wrote.

“So this is likely to be it. The last, maybe, and I can happily live with that.“

Crowe, who played 77 tests and 143 one-day internationals for New Zealand, was regarded as one of the world’s best batsmen during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma two years ago but it went into remission.

Late last year, however, a more aggressive form of the disease, double-hit lymphoma, developed. Crowe said he had been told only five per cent of sufferers survive more than 12 months.

Crowe said he had decided against chemotherapy and was instead trying natural treatments.

He was inducted into the international cricket Hall of Fame last month and is making the trip from New Zealand to watch the final live, cheering on the players he regards as the “sons I never had”.

“I will hold back tears all day long. I will gasp for air on occasions. I will feel like a nervous parent,” he wrote.

“Whatever happens, March 29 at the MCG will be the most divine fun ever.”

Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum told a news conference on Saturday he had read Crowe’s column.

“What he’s going through at the moment is incredibly difficult. We had him involved in the group, and not long ago as well we came and spent time with the team and it was great,” McCullum said.

“He seems to have really found peace with himself and the game as well, and he’s been instrumental in helping some of our guys on the team peel back their games and really focus on being able to develop individually but also buy into the team collectively. He’s been a really big asset.

“It’s really sad what he’s going through and we just hope that he’s able to find some peace in the time that he’s got left.”

It's been coming since his relapse, but didn't realise it was so bad. Maybe this could be NZ's Seve inspiration moment.

Has he been through the transplant and all?

Nightmare man... Hope they do it for him.

It's a strange story.

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On 15 October 2012, it was revealed that Crowe had been diagnosed with lymphoma.[17] He blamed the illness on a failing immune system, weakened by various illnesses picked up while touring the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

On 5 June 2013, Crowe announced that he was free of cancer on Campbell Live, but he would cut his ties with cricket, as he was a self-proclaimed "recovering addict to cricket, much like an alcoholic".[18] Crowe says he wore a 'mask' from the age of 22, due to high expectations, but at the age of 51 was happy to 'look at the real me'.[19]

In 2014, Crowe announced that the lymphoma had returned and subsequently indicated that his chances of survival beyond 12 months were less than 5% and also of his wish to see the 2015 Cricket World Cup in February and March 2015.[20]

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So ... between October 2012 and June 2013 he went into remission with chemotherapy, and he's had a transplant since then that has already failed? Or he had a transplant up front for follicular lymphoma, and it's now failed?

This all just sounds a bit odd. The full diagnosis hasn't been revealed, or all treatment modalities haven't been explored, or something. I can't find much detail of his treatment on line ... googling 'Martin Crowe transplant' yields a few photos of a balding man whose thatch is improved, but nothing about a bone marrow transplant, which would be conventional therapy for a young person with a nasty lymphoma.

Whatever's going on, you can only wish for him to enjoy good health for a lot longer than he is currently announcing is his expectation.

Completely agree with that ~ esp the last bit.

All the best to NZ best bat since Sutcliffe.

Jimmy Stynes team motivational stunt

Not saying Crowe isn't dying ...but timing of his announcement is perfectly timed for maximum motivational potential

Not sure it quite works like that - such announcements by Old Masters can be two-edged swords. If Big Merv or even AB said this might be the last match he could watch, would it really (really) lift the team, or enervate it? Or even have little practical effect on this new generation of players.

Anyway, I don't think Crowe thinks quite that fanatically narrow-focus (or do you mean his agent or such put him up to it)?  He's not an Aussie, you know.


Clarke, on the other hand, had plenty of time for his announcement, before the very eve of the showdown. And he's the current skipper, with all his dogs still in the fight, whose mind is not distracted by the hereafter (and no doubt pain and distress along the way), ..... now that is a big fat stunt paraded through the streets on a stick. "We've got to win it for the Big Michael Clarke!!!!!!" (as Warney might scream).


And even if it's indeed a stuntoff, as you suggest, I know whose gimmick I hope has more effect.

But then, I suppose you're going to say NSR ....

Well regardless of motivation, Crowe's words are moving.

But I still hope he is disappointed after the Final.

It's only the usual suspects bagging Clarke and they're just crapped off that they missed out on a messy debacle to pontificate about. They would have found fault regardless - if he'd made the announcement five minutes ago he'd be pinching the limelight, if he'd made it straight after the Test series he'd be throwing Smith to the wolves, etc etc....

Re Crowe: The Stynes comparison might have some merit if Jim was still alive, like Walter White, but unforch....

In both cases there seems to be an underlying assumption that the team and the media both found out at the same time....or that the players wouldn't know if their asses were on fire unless Crash told them.

On that first bit though, Fred, FWIW (and at the risk of sounding like a deflated Brian Waddle after a right post-bantering by jubilant Aussie colleagues ) ...

With respect, I don't think that's QUITE it. Had MC quietly appended the retirement message during or immediately in the wake of Australia's win, it would not have commanded centre-stage like it did, at the time he chose to break that silence. The big headline news in the former case would still have been the team's cup victory, and particular players' accomplishments and merits: the retirement would have just fitted neatly in with it, indeed under it.

Basically, you can't UPSTAGE the main action of the play if it's already started, is exploding fireworks and bunting all around you, or indeed the play and the festivities have already passed off.

Whereas, amid a comparatively slow news day, competing only with the mutterings, the manufactured hype-factory outputs, the predictions, anticipations and/or misgivings, it pretty much commanded all the individual spotlights. (*)

Alternatively, he had all tournament to make such an announcement, and put a closing date on his time as OD skipper. It's not as you say, I think, a choice between either the time he chose, or else resign with immediate effect on the eve of the WC, leaving his successor to sink or swim without any commitment from himself.

You COULD of course say he was NOT going to retire if Aus did not reach the final: which is the most obvious "non-grandstanding" possibility.

Or else, he saw himself as a Henry V figure - ratcheting up the ante before a desperate fight against the odds, to save the soldiers' lives, and with that, to save the homeland from invasion. I'm not sure any cricket match is quite that status.


(*) You could argue M Crowe was doing just the same: Marty's line. Personally, I don't think so - I think there are very substantial differences between the two announcements - and again FWIW, I tried to explain why I thought so in my previous post.

BUT ANYWAY!!: whatever the grace, whatever the off-field strategy and tactics - well batted Michael Clarke. And to the end inspirational captain - widely underrated at first - who came to lead by cracking example.