Cricket: Crowe's components create picture of perfection

SO AFTER play began, Martin Crowe, who was 72, faced England's Darren Gough, who must be in danger of thinking that Test cricket is not all it is built up to be. Gough bowled a wide half-volley, which Crowe drove through the covers with a stroke that made you wonder if any man had ever fashioned a more exquisite cover drive.

There was the pick-up of the bat, the flawless footwork as the left foot went forward and across, the flowing arc of the bat as it went into the stroke and then the classic follow-through. And finally, the best moment of all as Crowe briefly held his position at the end of the stroke. It was a position which could only have been arrived at if all the component parts were in perfect working order.

Watching this and all his other strokes, both in defence and attack, made you realise that if the game of cricket should ever be lost to mankind and in, say, 3,000 years time a film of Crowe's batting should be discovered it would be possible from watching it to deduce the complete art of batsmanship.

One attribute which Crowe has and invariably belongs to the great batsmen of any era is the ability to pick up the ball in flight that fraction of a second earlier than normal mortals. Whether it is eyesight, instinct or extra-sensory perception, it is something which is given to very few.

Of course, it makes the initial judgement of length swifter which means the footwork is more relaxed and precise and the stroke is therefore less rushed. It all leads to that cover drive Crowe played against Gough. I wonder what they will make of it in 4994?