West Indies embark on a 44-day tour of Sri Lanka, which includes two Tests, three ODIs and two T20Is in October and November, an SLC press release said

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Sep-2015West Indies embark on a 44-day tour of Sri Lanka, which includes two Tests, three ODIs and two T20Is in October and November, an SLC press release said.The first Test begins in Galle on October 14, where West Indies have played only two matches in 2001 and 2010. They will only have three days to acclimatise to the venue.The SLC interim committee had earlier said that the board was trying to reduce the costs it will incur by hosting games in Galle, as well as at other venues for the tour. That could be the reason West Indies will spend much of their time ahead of the first Test in Colombo – seven days of training at the Sinhalese Sports Club, followed by a three-day game at the venue.Following the Galle Test, West Indies return to Colombo for the second Test at P Sara Oval, where they have never played red-ball cricket before. Three days’ practice at the venue will lead them into the match starting on October 22.West Indies have never won a Test series in Sri Lanka. They drew with the hosts in 1993 and 2010, and lost in 2001 and 2005.The ODIs start in November and will be day-night affairs. The first two ODIs will be held at the R Premadasa stadium on November 1 and November 4. Pallekele will host the final ODI on November 7 and the teams will stay back for the first T20 two days later. The final T20 will take the teams back to Premadasa on November 12.These T20s are the only confirmed matches that West Indies play before the World T20 in India in March 2016. Sri Lanka have two more on their docket when they visit New Zealand in December 2015-January 2016.

BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was hospitalised on Thursday evening in Kolkata after suffering a heart attack, is now stable

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Sep-2015BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was hospitalised on Thursday evening after suffering a heart attack, is now stable. According to the fresh medical bulletin issued by the BM Birla Hospital in Kolkata, Dalmiya was “clinically better”, but was still in the coronary critical care unit.”Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya was admitted last night with chest discomfort and underwent coronary angiography. Clot was aspirated out to establish good flow in coronary arteries,” the medical bulletin issued at 10.30 am on Friday stated. “Today, he is clinically better with improvement in ECG. He is being monitored at the hospital with medication as per protocol.”According to one of the senior officials at the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), where Dalmiya was elected as president for an eighth consecutive term in July, doctors had indicated there were still some clots that needed to be cleared: “We have been told that although one of the clots has been removed, it is only partially removed. There are few more.”In the first bulletin, issued late Thursday evening, the doctors had said that “multiple lesions were observed with total occlusion of left anterior descending coronary artery.”The CAB official said Dalmiya was talking, but was not allowed any visitors since he was under critical care. The official added that doctors had indicated if the recovery goes smooth Dalmiya will likely be out of the hospital “within 72 hours” from today.But according to the hospital spokesperson it was too early to determine as to when Dalmiya would be discharged.

A round-up of all the Haier Mobile T-20 Cup matches played on September 13, 2015

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Sep-2015

Group B

Imran Khan and Israrullah both shared the Man-of-the-Match award•PCB

A hat-trick from the left-arm seamer Imran Khan, followed by a 52-ball 82 from Israrullah powered Peshawar Region into the semi-finals, after the team beat Karachi Region Blues by seven wickets at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Despite the defeat, Karachi Blues also made it to the next round, starting tomorrow.Batting first, Karachi Blues were never allowed to thrive in their innings, as the opener Khurram Manzoor was dismissed in the third over. Khalid Latif, the tournament’s second leading scorer, hit 40 off 34 balls to lay a platform, but none of the other batsmen could capitalise, as Imran clipped three important wickets – Fawad Alam (37 off 28), Sarfaraz Ahmed (23 off 18) and Anwar Ali (0) – to complete his hat-trick. Those late blows restricted Karachi Blues to 156 for 7.Rafatullah Mohmand departed early in the chase, but Israrullah and Mohammad Rizwan (40 off 35) made no mistakes. Israrullah launched 13 fours during his fifty, as Peshawar overhauled the target in 18 overs. Anwar Ali bagged one wicket while Rumman Raees, the leading wicket-taker of the tournament, could also only manage 1 for 35. With their fourth win of the tournament, Peshawar ended on top of Group B.A five-for from the fast bowler Mohammad Naeem set up a six-wicket win for Abbottabad Region against Islamabad Region at the Diamond Club Ground. The win, though, was in vain, as the Younis Khan-led side failed to qualify for the semi-finals after finishing third in the table, with three victories and two losses.Islamabad, having been inserted, began promisingly, as the opener Shan Masood scored 36 off 21 balls. However, Naeem ripped the batting order, picking up 5 for 31 from his four overs. Shahid Yousuf resisted with 34, but Islamabad were eventually bundled out for 149 in 19 overs.Abbottabad did not have much trouble in their chase, as Fakhar Zaman, who scored a century against Peshawar on Saturday, hammered 78 off 39 balls with 14 fours and a six. Abbottabad lost four wickets in the chase, but Younis made 31 off 18 balls, taking the side home with 29 balls to spare.A three-wicket haul from Mohammad Irfan set up a comprehensive six-wicket win for Lahore Region Whites against Faisalabad Region at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The result, however, did not help either team; Lahore Whites could only finish fourth in the table, while Faisalabad were relegated after ending rock bottom.Faisalabad, opting to bat, were steered by an unbeaten 55-ball 87 from their opener Raheel Ameer. However, Ameer received little by way of support from his team-mates, as no other batsman could muster more than 17. Irfan picked up 3 for 9 to run through Faisalabad’s lower middle order, while Sajid Watto collected 2 for 26, restricting the team to 140 for 7.Lahore Whites lost Ahmed Shehzad early in the chase, but crucial thirties from their captain Azhar Ali (35), Umar Siddiq (34) and Saad Nasim (37 not out) took the team home in 18.4 overs. Ehsan Adil was Faisalabad’s best bowler, taking 2 for 16 from three overs.

Group A

Sialkot Region overpowered Bahawalpur Region by 10 wickets at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad to go straight into the semi-final.In what turned out to be a one-sided contest, Bahawalpur, batting first, could only muster 96 for 7 from their 20 overs. Only Bahawalpur’s captain Kamran Hussain produced a substantial score, making 43 off 33 balls, while six of the batsmen failed to break into double digits. Hasan Ali was the main destroyer, picking up four wickets at the cost of 11 runs, while Usama Mir bowled a tight four overs to bag two wickets, giving away just seven runs.Sialkot responded to the small chase in style, as both the openers Mukhtar Ahmed (55 off 25) and Nauman Anwar (45 off 23) guided the team home inside eight overs. Sialkot will now take on Peshawar Region in Monday’s second semi-final.Hyderabad Region held their nerve to beat Rawalpindi Region by two wickets off the penultimate ball in an inconsequential match. Hyderabad needed five off the last two deliveries from Hammad Azam when Nauman Ali hit the third ball he faced for six to seal the win.Hyderabad began their chase of 159 strongly with a 37-run opening stand between Azeem Ghumman (41 off 36) and Sharjeel Khan. However, they lost momentum thereafter and slipped to 85 for 4 during the 13th over. Faisal Athar (31 off 24) and Shoaib Laghari (34 off 19) revived the chase with a fifty partnership.Yasir Arafat struck twice in the 18th over on way to 3 for 20 and Sohail Tanvir removed Laghari in the 19th but Hyderabad had enough left in the tank to reach their destination.Rawalpindi had posted 158 for 8 after choosing to bat. Umar Amin led with 52 off 40 and rebuilt the innings from 98 for 5 along with Zahid Mansoor, who contributed 31 off 20. Nauman Ali starred with the ball too, taking 3 for 31.

A move to No. 3 may help end Lahiru Thirimanne’s lean trot, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said ahead of the first Test against West Indies in Galle

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Galle13-Oct-2015A move to No. 3 may help end Lahiru Thirimanne’s lean trot, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said ahead of the first Test against West Indies in Galle. Thirimanne has been groomed for that role over the past two years and is now free to come in at first drop, following the axing of Upul Tharanga from the Test squad, as well as the retirements of high-profile batsmen.He has continued to be effective in the limited-overs formats despite his Test-match woes. Thirimanne averages 47.81 at No. 3 in ODIs, and Mathews said the team trusts his Test returns will begin to improve as well.”Because of Kumar Sangakkara batting at No. 3 we couldn’t really accommodate Lahiru in the top three,” Mathews said. “Your best batter always has to bat at No. 3. Now that Sangakkara has gone, Lahiru is pretty much the candidate to bat at No. 3.”Thirimanne’s poor Test form has been particularly apparent in Sri Lanka’s recent home Tests. He averaged 21.09 across the six Tests against Pakistan and India, hitting only one fifty in that period.”Lahiru’s form was a bit of a concern in the recent past, but we continue to have faith in him,” Mathews said. “We know he’s a very good player. He’s played the game for quite a long time, so we’re pretty much sure he’ll come good and deliver for us in this series.”Thirimanne’s form had been only one of the several top-order problems Sri Lanka faced, against India in August. The hosts failed to cross 210 in half of their innings that tour, and found themselves battling a first-innings deficit in each of the three games. Mathews suggested a more positive approach with the bat could see his side to bigger totals.”We need to adjust the mindset with our batting,” Mathews said. “It’s all about trying to score runs – and that’s been the talking point for our batters over the last two months. It’s just that any given day you get a good ball and you tend to get out, and that’s the fate of the batsman. But I think you need to just try and score runs all the time and grab opportunities that the bowlers give you – try and score off the loose balls. Hopefully we can get everything right this series.”Sri Lanka’s bowlers have largely done well in the home series this year, but they have also been occasionally guilty of letting the opposition tail score cheap runs. In the most recent Test at the SSC, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin both hit fifties from No. 9. In the previous series, Zulfiqar Babar had hit a fifty in Galle from No. 10.”We’ve talked about getting lower-order wickets a lot in our meetings,” Mathews said. “It’s just that we have to bowl at them thinking they are batters. The batters play a lot different than the bowlers – the bowlers throw their bats around and get a few runs, and a few nicks. When that happens, in the next minute the whole scenario changes. Hopefully we can rectify that this series.”Mathews also all but confirmed that Tharindu Kaushal will play in Galle, ahead of Dilruwan Perera, despite Kaushal’s doosra having been recently banned by the ICC. “We trust that PHT Kaushal will be someone who serves Sri Lanka for a long time, given the way he’s bowled in the past. As a team, and as a captain, I can give him that trust and play him. I have no issues with playing him in this match.”

South Africa received an unexpected hand to give them a shot at saving the Bangalore Test

The Report by Sidharth Monga15-Nov-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Persistent rain kept the pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium under covers on the second day•BCCI

South Africa received an unexpected hand to give them a shot at saving the Bangalore Test. Well it wasn’t entirely unexpected, in that it had been raining in Bangalore leading in to the Test and the cyclonic activity around India’s east coast had promised more rain, but a steady drizzle since morning to wash out the whole of second day’s play was unexpected.That was arguably the first good news for South Africa in the Test series. After they psyched themselves up on a turning surface in Mohali, they lost Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander to injury, and then were bowled out for 214 on the first day after being asked to bat first. The Bangalore pitch was a normal day-one India track, but they managed to lose eight wickets to spin.India, who had knocked off 80 runs on the first evening, were now looking for quick runs to get into lead. They will feel frustrated by the rain, not least because thunderstorms have been predicted for the third and fourth days of the Test too.

Travis Head blitzed the first ton by an Adelaide Strikers batsman to lead his side to a five-wicket win despite needing 51 off the last 18 balls

The Report by Will Macpherson in Adelaide31-Dec-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTravis Head hammered gave Adelaide Strikers every one of the 56 runs they made in the last three overs•Getty Images

Pantomime season’s arrived in Adelaide. It’s the final day of the year, so let the good times roll. Or the mad times, in this case. A bumper crowd of 46,389 watched on, rabid, riotous and ever so partisan and Strikers batsman Travis Head gave them everything they could want with a blitz so grand that his team romped to a win despite needing 51 off the last three overs. He got every one of those runs himself, and the five more he needed to finish 101 not out off 53 balls.New Year’s eve arrived with a lot of fanfare, including a premature fireworks display, but everything faded into the background and a mighty game of cricket took centre stage. It contained moments of high farce; funky overthrows, dodgy drops, attempted mankads, mystery injuries and plenty of bickering and after all that – as far as the crowd was concerned at least – the good guys prevailed in a thrilling finish with a young hometown hero standing tall.A night of such oddities, surely, was made for Brad Haddin. An injury-enforced reshuffle meant he swapped opener for finisher, coming in at No. 4 and seeing an efficient Sydney Sixers’ innings home, after Michael Lumb and Ed Cowan – making his first appearance of the campaign – got them off to a flyer. But 66 for 0 became 66 for 2 in no time flat.Lumb was his usual mix of legside hoicks, lusty hooks and bunted inside-out drives, and it took a moment of inspiration to remove him. Alex Ross provided it by sprinting 30 yards round the offside fence to dive and intercept an uppish, well-struck drive. A ball later – Adil Rashid’s first – Nic Maddinson was gone too, trapped plumb in front playing a rather odd reverse sweep.Haddin joined Cowan, who ditched his usual orthodoxy with a couple of violent swipes to leg. It was that stroke that brought about his downfall, however, as he was caught at cow corner, and soon enough Rashid – now the competition’s joint highest wicket-taker – had snared Jordan Silk and Ryan Carters too. In a bit to push the scoring rate up, Sixers had lost half their side in the 14th over. They still had 105 on the board though.Former Strikers captain Johan Botha – who was roundly booed and spent the night donning the near permanent scowl of a man wronged – and Haddin saw the innings through, sharing a 71-run stand. Haddin twice slog-swept Rashid for six, and went after Kane Richardson too, while Botha ran hard before finding the boundary four times in the last two overs, including a magnificent slash over point in a fractious final over. The bowler Ben Laughlin and Haddin clashed when the batsman appeared to edge behind but stayed put, and the umpire doubled the home side’s fury by adjudging it a wide.Craig Simmons and Tim Ludeman got the Strikers’ chase off to a brisk start. Simmons belted Jackson Bird’s opening over for three fours, once through point, then either side of square leg. Next over, he sent Ben Dwarshuis high into the stands with a pull. Ludeman was quickly in on the act, taking a pair of boundaries from each of Doug Bollinger and Botha’s opening overs.Simmons fell at the start of the fifth over, skying an attempted slog off Bird. An over later, Mahela Jayawardene was caught behind, and Ludeman soon followed off a top-edge. Brad Hodge wriggled to 17 off 18, including one mighty six, but when the New Year’s fireworks prematurely began, he and Alex Ross fell in quick succession to the impressive Dwarshuis, and the game looked up.Enter Travis Head. He had taken 19 balls to find the fence, but once he biffed both Bird and Botha for sixes, he was a man on the move. Sean Abbott was set to bowl the 18th over, with Strikers still requiring 51 runs and Head 45 off 38. Head sent Abbott for four to long-on, six to deep midwicket, four behind point, then for two enormous legside sixes. Doug Bollinger bowler an impressive 19th over, but Head still managed a monstrous six over extra cover, to go with five other scampered runs. And Abbott, amazingly, was left to bowl the last set with Strikers needing 13 to win.No Adelaide Strikers batsman had ever made a BBL century and Head was 17 short of a maiden T20 ton. The first was a half-volley on leg stump. Six. Slower-ball bouncer. Six. Short again. Slapped. Six. Century. Pandemonium.If 2016 is half as fun as all this, we are in for a treat.

Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jan-2016Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.A call will be taken on Steyn’s availability for the T20s at a later stage, with the aim to have him fit for the Australia T20s in March and the World T20 which follows that.

Kyle Abbott, who suffered a hamstring niggle in the Centurion Test will also miss the first ODI against England with Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada likely to be rested for some of the matches.”They definitely won’t play all five games,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, said. “We will look to bring one or two new fast bowlers in.”That means South Africa are likely to add to their one-day squad, which currently only has Chris Morris as back-up to the bowlers. Wayne Parnell, and Hardus Viljoen, who are playing for the A side in a warm-up match against England on Saturday, could come into contention. Vernon Philander, however, will not.Philander tore ankle ligaments in the warm-ups for the second Test against India in Bangalore in November and has missed seven Tests as a result. He was expected to recover by mid-January but is still “two to three weeks away from competitive cricket”, according to Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager . Philander is unlikely to make an international appearance this season.Moosajee is more optimistic about Steyn, even though the exact nature of the shoulder injury, which followed a groin strain, has not been discovered. “All initial scans were clear but when symptoms did not improve, we discovered a reaction in the bone itself,” Moosajee said. ‘This is very rare in fast bowlers as it is usually caused by trauma. We are treating it conservatively because he is a fast bowler and we know we have the World T20 coming up.”Steyn is still receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber and is being monitored every two weeks. Moosajee is “confident he will make a full recovery” and that in “six, eight or 10 weeks when he is fit, will be bowling as well as he ever has”. He also emphasised that Steyn’s current niggle is “not career-threatening.”

Pakistan Under-19s notched up their first win of the tri-nation tournament with a convincing 109-run victory against Australia Under-19s in Dubai

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Jan-2016
ScorecardPakistan Under-19s notched up their first win of the tri-nation tournament with a convincing 109-run victory against Australia Under-19s in Dubai, as they kept their hopes for a spot in the finals alive. After choosing to bat, Pakistan first posted a total of 311 and then bowled Australia out for 202 in 40.4 overs.Pakistan’s openers – Zeeshan Malik (19) and captain Gauhar Hafeez (36) – put on 63 in 52 balls before both fell in quick succession. Mohammad Umar and Saif Badar both struck fifties, and combined for a 88-run fourth-wicket stand to set up a strong platform. Hasan Khan and Hasan Mohsin provided the acceleration towards the end with brisk cameos, pushing the team over the 300-run mark. Liam Hatcher followed up his five-for in the previous game with four wickets and offspinner Arjun Nair picked up three.Nair got the chase off to a solid start, but wickets fell regularly around him. He compiled a 89-ball 106, an innings that featured 13 fours and three sixes, but no other batsman scored more than 30. Shadab Khan and Arsal Sheikh claimed four wickets apiece to rip through the middle and lower order as Australia were eventually bowled out in the 41st over.

Pakistan crumbled to 83 all out in 17.3 overs – their lowest ever score batting first in T20Is – before Virat Kohli’s 49 led India to an eventually comfortable five-wicket win in Mirpur

The Report by Alagappan Muthu in Mirpur27-Feb-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:56

Bazid Khan: Pakistan’s batting a deep-rooted problem

There is a bar for international batsmen and with Pakistan it is never quite certain which way they will push it. There is never a shortage of spectacle when they play and that box was at least ticked in Mirpur. Pakistan crumbled to 83 all out in 17.3 overs – their lowest ever score in T20Is after batting first. There is a bar for international bowlers too and Pakistan have been vaulting over it for years. Mohammad Amir, playing his sixth international limited-overs match in nearly as many years, turned up like he hadn’t missed a beat. He took out Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane for ducks in the first over of the chase, and a low-scoring game that had threatened to be one-sided was given the thrill India-Pakistan cricket is known for. But Virat Kohli’s class and technique prevailed in the end and India held on for a five-wicket win.Rohit, who had stood a class apart on a similarly challenging pitch on Wednesday, was beaten for pace and prodigious inswing before he even had his bearings set. The first ball, a yorker, may well have burned a hole through his boot and crashed into off stump. Amir could not have sounded his warning any clearer or louder but his leg-before appeal was turned down.So he pulled his length back but kept the inswing going. Rohit was rapped on the pads again and this time there was no doubt. Rahane, coming as a late replacement as Shikhar Dhawan rested a niggle, saw a wide down leg before he too could not handle the ball bending back into him at over 140 kph and was trapped in front. Suresh Raina popped a catch to mid-on in Amir’s next over and India were 8 for 3.Kohli persevered amid the carnage, deflecting the memory of an inswinger that nearly had him lbw and an edge that flew over the slip cordon. Both were off Amir’s bowling, but his full quota was all done by the seventh over. After that sensational spell of 4-0-18-3, India gained the breathing room they needed and Kohli’s 49 off 51 balls secured a fifth T20I win in six matches in the lead up to the World T20.As taxing as India’s batsmen had it, it was hard not to think about their bowlers. MS Dhoni had won the toss and handed them first use of a green-tinged pitch. Ashish Nehra began in vintage fashion, moving the ball across the right-hander and getting it to bounce more than expected. A surprised Mohammad Hafeez nicked the fourth ball of the match through to the wicketkeeper.At the other end, Jasprit Bumrah’s natural bustle into the crease had the same effect but he was bringing the ball into the right-handers. Khurram Manzoor’s pads weathered a lot of impact as he came in at No. 3 and played out a maiden over on his T20I debut. Sharjeel Khan was undone by Bumrah’s offcutter in the fourth over and India’s discipline was bearing the sweetest fruit.India’s pacers did most of the damage early on to set up the win•Associated Press

Then it created a spectacular chaos. Shoaib Malik poked a shortish delivery into the covers and took a few steps down, looking for a single. A non-existent one because Kohli had swooped down on the ball with great agility. It made Malik rethink his decision and then change it but it was too late. Manzoor was barely in the frame when the direct hit found the non-striker’s end. To complete the ineptness of that little passage of play from Pakistan, Manzoor had lost his bat in the frantic hurry to turn around and save himself. Seven balls later, Malik chased one outside off from Hardik Pandya and nicked it behind. It was the first of three wickets for a man known more as a batting allrounder.Yuvraj Singh surprisingly came in to bowl the first over of spin, ahead of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. His first ball was angled in at Umar Akmal, who played for turn and was trapped lbw and Pakistan were 35 for 5 in the eighth over.As if to cap a spell of self-destructive batting, there was another silly run-out. Shahid Afridi, whose experience spans nearly 20 years in international cricket, went for an ambitious second run to deep square leg taking on India’s quickest man across the turf and the strongest arm, of Ravindra Jadeja. The pick up was one-handed and the throw was barely a parabola. Like a sniper’s shot, it travelled along a near straight line and ended up a few centimeters away from the stumps and Dhoni made up the distance. Pakistan finished the eighth over at 42 for 6, the lower order just about doubled that. But it just wasn’t enough.

Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, was farewelled by around 1000 mourners at a funeral service in Auckland that celebrated one of cricket’s greatest talents and fiercest intellects

Daniel Brettig11-Mar-2016Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, was farewelled by around 1000 mourners at a funeral service in Auckland that celebrated one of cricket’s greatest talents and fiercest intellects.The funeral held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell was broadcast live around New Zealand, and also streamed online. It featured tributes from Crowe’s wife Lorraine Downes, his brother Jeff Crowe, his former international team-mate, Ian Smith, and his school friend David Lyle Morris.In an emotional address, Jeff Crowe remembered the outpouring grief and appreciation for his brother last week in Bangladesh, where he had been serving as an ICC match referee: “It never really dawned on me how deep it all went, what a huge splash he made, what an inspiration he was for so many.”He noted with some awe and puzzlement Crowe’s abilities as a writer. “How did he know how to write a truly clever sentence or paragraph,” he asked. “Then I was reminded by our friend Richard Reid, ‘unlike you Jeff, he actually attended class, and read a book or two’.”Smith recalled being asked in June last year by Crowe to write a eulogy, before witnessing him fight on against cancer to live for another nine months. He spoke of how Crowe first emerged as New Zealand’s leading batsman by battling against ill health, heat and an adverse match situation to save a draw against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1984, and then went on to dominant innings against the West Indies and Australia, dual innings of 188 apiece in 1985.”You know Stockley, that was great indeed,” Crowe had told Smith, his roommate in Brisbane, after Richard Hadlee’s 9 for 52 “but if we don’t capitalise on that, it won’t be the same.” At the 1992 World Cup, Smith said Crowe’s innovations sent cricket’s best brains “into a collective tailspin”. Smith also read a heartfelt message from Allan Border, and summed up by saying that one word epitomised Crowe: “Passion.”Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill, two cricketers Crowe had mentored, delivered video tributes ahead of New Zealand’s looming World Twenty20 campaign in India. Guptill’s words included: “He always saw something in my game, even when I couldn’t.” Taylor spoke of how Crowe’s email had inspired him to make 290 against Australia in Perth last year after a bad match in Brisbane had him questioning his future: “Hogan’s words made me truly believe and have faith again.”His wife Lorraine spoke about Crowe’s final days, about her feelings of grief at his loss, and also about his faith. “Many knew him as a cricketing legend, I knew him only as my soulmate,” she said. “He could be passionate, romantic, and fun. And he could be as cheeky as hell. He was everything I ever dreamed for in a partner.”I recently asked him ‘what is the most important lesson you’ve learned’. He said ‘I have learned many lessons, but the most important of these is to only hold onto the truth, removing all that is untrue and false’. I asked Marty how he wanted to be remembered. He said ‘for being authentic, loving and full of prayer’.”A host of notable cricketing names attended, including a sizeable New Zealand Cricket delegation: the chief executive, David White; the president, Stephen Boock; the board directors Sir Richard Hadlee, Martin Snedden and Geoff Allott, and the selector, Gavin Larsen.Greg Chappell was present as a representative of Cricket Australia, and also as a former foe: he had captained Australia against New Zealand in Crowe’s very first Test match, and his upright technique had been a source of considerable inspiration for Crowe’s own methods.There were many small touches, redolent of Crowe’s eye for detail. The service order was orange, a favourite colour, while his casket was adorned with the image of a butterfly. The funeral began with footage of Crowe’s innings of 142 against England at Lord’s in 1994, his most cherished performance, accompanied by the Pink Floyd instrumental The Great Gig In The Sky.Following the service, current Auckland Grammar students formed a guard of honour, and also delivered a ceremonial Haka. Crowe’s pallbearers included the actor Russell Crowe, and longtime friends Hilton Mexted, David Lyle Morris, Grant Fox, Steve Wilkes and his brother Jeff.