It takes something special for an Australian to really acknowledge a New Zealand cricketer.
For Australian great Allan Border, Martin Crowe sat in the highest company among opponents.
More than that, the former captain says he will miss his company off the field.
"I'll miss the quirky, intelligent humour he brought to the table. He was top shelf as far as cricket is concerned, as good as I've seen," Border said.
"Technically, he was absolutely fantastic. He had a presence at the crease and if you combine that with the cricket smarts he possessed you're going to have a pretty good package.
"It's a pretty simple formula, and he had it in spades."
Among Crowe's most memorable innings was his century against Border and Australia in the opening game of the 1992 World Cup at Eden Park.
New Zealand went on to win the match by 37 runs.
He rated Crowe's captaincy highly and maintained if Crowe had been fit during the World Cup semifinal against Pakistan at Eden Park in 1992 New Zealand would have won that match.
A hamstring injury meant he was unable to take the field for the second half of the match, which Pakistan won with a late flurry of runs from Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Border puts Crowe in the same bracket as the man widely regarded as Sir Richard Hadlee.
"It's one thing to take the wickets but someone's got to score the runs as well. Those two, when they were playing in the same team, New Zealand were a very very competitive team."
And Border also had a soft spot for the off-field Crowe, with whom he shared conversation, and the odd beer.
"He was just a tremendous bloke, really good company. I enjoyed many chats over a beer whether it be after cricket matches or at the golf course or socially generally. It's a very sad day."
- David Leggat
