New Zealand and England to compete for Crowe-Thorpe Trophy as a tribute to both the late legends and their legacy.
New Zealand and England will compete for The Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, honoring the legacies of the late Martin Crowe and Graham Thorpe.
The trophy, which was created using wood from each player’s bat in partnership with the ECB, NZC, and their families, will be displayed in Christchurch on Thursday morning before the three-match series begins. David Ngawati of Mahu Creative, who also created the Tangiwai Shield for New Zealand’s Test series against South Africa, created the trophy.
Thorpe and Crowe both had incredibly prosperous Test careers. Considered the best hitter in New Zealand, Crowe averaged 45.36 and scored 17 hundreds. Thorpe averaged 44.66 with 16 hundreds before his untimely death in August.
For these two sides, the bats that were donated by the two families to make the trophy have unique significance. At Lord’s in 1994, Crowe scored his century with the Gunn and Moore. In 1997, Thorpe’s Kookaburra was utilised to score consecutive hundreds against New Zealand.
Members of both teams who will play in this three-match series are among the younger generations that Crowe and Thorpe have mentored.
“It is absolutely an honour,” said Joe Root, who worked closely with Thorpe during his time as a batting coach with the ECB. “What a great man. For me personally, to have someone who you watched growing up and took a lot from, then to get the opportunity to work with him as a coach. The amount he put into to my game, to have the opportunity to play for something with his name on it is really quite special and a nice way to remember his legacy and a player.
“It’s a side that he had a lot of success against, a brilliant double hundred. He told us many times about that innings here in Christchurch [an unbeaten 200 in 2002], normally over a glass of sauvignon blanc.
“It’s a really fitting way to remember two of England and New Zealand’s great players. How both sides play represents how they played the game pretty well. I expect a really exciting series, like the previous one was. It will be a really fitting way to remember two brilliant players.
In a statement released on Tuesday, NZC CEO Scott Weenink added: “Today’s generation of players are standing on the shoulders of those who went before them, players like Graham and Martin. It’s good that we recognise this and respect their legacy. Both those players were seriously good batsmen who understood the game intimately – they commanded respect wherever they went.”
ECB chief executive Richard Gould said: “Martin and Graham are two legends of the game, and it is fitting that Test series between our two men’s sides will now be contested in their name.”