Tearful goodbye to cricket legend Martin Crowe. Twitter reactions

Martin Crowe, a cricketer of prodigious talent who made batting appear effortless while secretly struggling with the burden of being a world-class player in otherwise modest New Zealand teams, died of cancer Thursday. He was 53.

Crowe was first diagnosed with aggressive follicular lymphoma in 2012 and after chemotherapy, he was thought to be in remission. But Crowe announced in September 2014 that the cancer, which he called "my friend and tough taskmaster," had returned.

In a statement, his family said "it is with heavy hearts that the family of Martin Crowe advise his death. The family request privacy at this time."

Crowe played 77 Tests and 143 one-day internationals for New Zealand in a 13-year career. He scored 5,444 Test runs at an average of 45.36 with 17 centuries.

He is best remembered for his leadership during the 1992 World Cup Down Under, and surprised the world by having a spinner, in the form of Dipak Patel, open the bowling. This ploy was subsequently adopted by captains the world over to good effect. He also had opener Mark Greatbatch go after the bowling from the word go.

Crowe's strategy, coupled with his batting looked almost certain to take the Kiwis to their first World Cup crown, unless they ran into a marauding Inzamam-ul-Haq in the semi-final. Read more.

Fans and admirers took to Twitter to express heartfelt condolences on the Kiwi legend's untimely death. A collection of tweets: