Kane you believe this?

New Zealand’s Kane Williamson celebrates his century during the fifth day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Christchurch on March 13, 2023. PIC/AFP

Through his prowess, performances, and personality, Kane Williamson had no problems convincing cricket enthusiasts that he was nothing short of a modern great in Test cricket.

But his decision to retire from international cricket in the midst of a Test series isn't all that convincing. Williamson decided to make his retirement public after New Zealand lost a pitch-caused lopsided Test match against England at Lord's.

No team worth its salt gets into a state of mind that a series is lost after only a first Test defeat. And a World Test Championship-winning team like New Zealand can certainly bounce back and shake a shaken England team, whose skipper in the Lord's Test is not around for Game 2. Now, whether they can do that without Williamson is debatable. "You don't lose Kane Williamson off the team-sheet and get stronger, because he's a legend," rightly said Rob Walter, the New Zealand head coach.

Yes, an international player knows best when his time is up, when's the time to say enough is enough, when to put that final full stop to a great script. And mere mortals are always reminded that we don't have the right to question that. What we do have is the freedom to wonder - wonder why someone as committed as Williamson would take a decision to stop playing international cricket in the middle of a series.

Meanwhile, the plaudits came thick and fast for Williamson. "Kane's always put the team first and although we're disappointed to see him go, we're happy to know he's content and at peace with his decision," added Walter.

To some cricket fans, Williamson's call is justified only if he was dealing with an injury or a personal problem so crippling that he just couldn't walk out to bat with his trusted Gray-Nicolls blade under his arm. To them, the most compelling of reasons to stay on would have been to help New Zealand get back in the series. And from a personal point of view, he was 485 runs away from the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket. The next highest run-getter for New Zealand is Ross Taylor with 7683. So now we have two modern Test greats ending their Test careers without getting into the 10,000-run club - Virat Kohli (9230) and Williamson (9515).

Williamson has earned the right to be considered in the top bracket of New Zealand's finest batsmen across ages. John Reid, Glenn Turner, Bevan Congdon, John Wright, Martin Crowe, and Stephen Fleming are some of my favourites. By the way, Crowe predicted great things for Fleming even before the left-hander notched up the first of his nine Test hundreds in a 7172-run career.

Some reckon Williamson is the best of the lot. This view, of course, won't be easily shared by those who feel Crowe was the best produced in Kiwiland.

Ask Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, who will tell you that Crowe (5444 in 77 Tests) mastered the art of dealing with reverse swing like no other. I remember what John Wright - who was Crowe's teammate from 1982 to 1993 - said when Crowe, 53, succumbed to cancer in 2016: "Our finest ever batsman gone at such a young stage of his life."

Without diminishing Williamson's great deed, we must never lose sight of the fact that Crowe played in the era of West Indies dominance in the 1980s. In seven Tests home and away, he took three hundreds off them. His 188 against the West Indies at Georgetown in 1985 was pivotal in drawing the Test. It was the highest score against the West Indies since Englishman Dennis Amiss's unbeaten 262 at Kingston in 1974. It was a flat Bourda pitch, but who can take away the fact that Crowe batted for nearly 10 hours? When it was West Indies's turn to be visitors in 1987, Crowe helped himself to consecutive centuries in the first and second Tests. The visiting team romped to a 10-wicket win in the second Test at Auckland after the draw in Wellington. When it came to the decider at Christchurch, Crowe played a role in New Zealand's five-wicket win with knocks of 83 and nine not out. West Indies were thus denied a series win in Kiwiland for the third time in a row; Viv Richards joining Garfield Sobers (1968-69) and Clive Lloyd (1979-80) as disappointed captains.

Tony Cozier, in his West Indies Cricket 1987 Annual, was wholesome in praise. He brought up Crowe's "big scores in each of the Tests, all compiled from the crisis of the loss of two early wickets."

Returning to the subject of retirement with an anecdote dating back to 1936. India's batting star Vijay Merchant bumped into England's batting great Patsy Hendren and expressed his surprise over news that Hendren had quit Test cricket. Hendren's instant reply inspired Merchant to keep saying in later years, "Always retire when they ask ‘why' and not ‘why not.' "

Like Williamson, Merchant too retired mid-series in 1951, and the great Indian batting technician would have been proud of what the New Zealander has just done.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.