Kane you believe this?

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 cricketBut his decision to retire from international cricket in the midst of a Test series isnrsquot all that convincing Williamson decided to make his retirement public after New Zealand lost a pitchcaused lopsided Test match against England at LordrsquosNo 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 Championshipwinning team like New Zealand can certainly bounce back and shake a shaken England team whose skipper in the Lordrsquos Test is not around for Game 2 Now whether they can do that without Williamson is debatable ldquoYou donrsquot lose Kane Williamson off the teamsheet and get stronger because hersquos a legendrdquo rightly said Rob Walter the New Zealand head coachYes an international player knows best when his time is up whenrsquos 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 donrsquot have the right to question that What we do have is the freedom to wonder mdash wonder why someone as committed as Williamson would take a decision to stop playing international cricket in the middle of a seriesMeanwhile the plaudits came thick and fast for Williamson ldquoKanersquos always put the team first and although wersquore disappointed to see him go wersquore happy to know hersquos content and at peace with his decisionrdquo added WalterTo some cricket fans Williamsonrsquos call is justified only if he was dealing with an injury or a personal problem so crippling that he just couldnrsquot walk out to bat with his trusted GrayNicolls 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 10000run mark in Test cricket The next highest rungetter for New Zealand is Ross Taylor with 7683 So now we have two modern Test greats ending their Test careers without getting into the 10000run club mdash Virat Kohli 9230 and Williamson 9515Williamson has earned the right to be considered in the top bracket of New Zealandrsquos 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 lefthander notched up the first of his nine Test hundreds in a 7172run careerSome reckon Williamson is the best of the lot This view of course wonrsquot be easily shared by those who feel Crowe was the best produced in KiwilandAsk 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 mdash who was Crowersquos teammate from 1982 to 1993 mdash said when Crowe 53 succumbed to cancer in 2016 ldquoOur finest ever batsman gone at such a young stage of his liferdquoWithout diminishing Williamsonrsquos 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 Amissrsquos 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 Indiesrsquos turn to be visitors in 1987 Crowe helped himself to consecutive centuries in the first and second Tests The visiting team romped to a 10wicket 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 Zealandrsquos fivewicket 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 196869 and Clive Lloyd 197980 as disappointed captainsTony Cozier in his West Indies Cricket 1987 Annual was wholesome in praise He brought up Crowersquos ldquobig scores in each of the Tests all compiled from the crisis of the loss of two early wicketsrdquoReturning to the subject of retirement with an anecdote dating back to 1936 Indiarsquos batting star Vijay Merchant bumped into Englandrsquos batting great Patsy Hendren and expressed his surprise over news that Hendren had quit Test cricket Hendrenrsquos instant reply inspired Merchant to keep saying in later years ldquoAlways retire when they ask lsquowhyrsquo and not lsquowhy notrsquo rdquoLike Williamson Merchant too retired midseries in 1951 and the great Indian batting technician would have been proud of what the New Zealander has just donemiddayrsquos Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper