1992 was a special tournament for New Zealand. It was the first time they were hosting (co-hosting, actually) the World Cup and they would also play all their matches at home. This offered a tremendous advantage but it was one that could have easily been frittered away for lack of leadership or quality players.

Martin Crowe, the captain for the 1992 campaign led from the front. A great deal of the credit to New Zealand's strategy of opening the bowling with off-spinner Deepak Patel would perhaps go to Crowe. It was a bold move, not entirely unique since there were some instances of spinners opening the bowling, but that was in Tests.

Crowe's leadership was exemplary to the point that New Zealand won seven of their first 8 matches. Their only loss was in the inconsequential match of the first round to Pakistan. Crowe's team also had some other fine players like Ken Rutherford and Mark Greatbatch who started all New Zealand innings with such speed that before the opposition bowling knew what happened, New Zealand would have a start!

But it wasn't about just being captain and not performing. Crowe led from the front and was also the Man of the tournament for his exceptional batting. He opened the tournament with a 100 in the first match against Australia. It was in this match that the New Zealand bowling strategy completely baffled the Aussies. And although it was there for the world to see and counter, not many could manage to do so successfully.

Crowe was also well aware of the rain rules in use through the tournament. In a rain truncated match against Zimbabwe, he showed his sharp mind when he blasted 74 off just 44 balls to take the New Zealand total to 162 in just about 21 overs. This meant that when the target was revised and the three least productive overs from the New Zealand total were removed, the required target was still 154 in 18 overs.

Against the West Indies, too, Crowe persisted with his ploy of opening with the spinner and when called upon to bat chasing the West Indies total of 203, he top scored with 81 (81b) and took the Kiwis to victory. The foundation, of course, had been laid by a blistering 63 from Greatbatch.

Perhaps the only criticism of Crowe in the 1992 tournament could have been that once his formula of opening with the spinner was working, he did not try to alter it. Especially after the first round loss to Pakistan. When faced with the prospect of playing the same team just four days later in the semi-final, Crowe stuck to his guns. That he almost pulled it off and was denied only by a brilliant innings from Inzamam is another story. But some changes may have worked.

In that semi-final again, Crowe contributed handsomely with the bat scoring 91 before being run out. He was using a runner after pulling his hamstring. He could not come on to the field to defend 262 and it was Patel who gave away 22 runs in his last two overs to shift the balance.

Martin Crowe was perhaps the most unlucky of captains in World Cups. He lost just two matches in the entire 1992 campaign and yet did not make it to the final. But to be fair, he did have a lot of the home advantage not having to play even one match away from home. Nonetheless, he was one of the best players and captains of the tournament.


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