Two great names,

OK Duco, most of your promotions are good for a chuckle and a dismissive ‘look what they’ve dreamed up now’ headshake, but this time you’ve gone too far.

Amid the waves of sponsors’ references, you’ve revealed your hit-and-giggle T20 cricket match will be played for the ‘‘iconic’’ Lomu-Crowe Trophy.

‘‘It’s truly fitting that the names of these two national heroes have pride of place on what is a wonderful, iconic piece of Kiwi art,’’ says David Higgins of Duco Events.

‘‘I’ve always believed that Martin and Jonah have not been fully recognised for the contribution they made to the country through their tremendous deeds on and off the sports field.’’

I don’t know art, but I know what I like. Sport.

Up until now the game has been no more than harmless fun, a bringing together of our national games, in a Hagley Oval version of beach cricket that promises a sporting meal as nourishing as candy floss.

But now Duco is telling us this piece of summer fluff is a fitting tribute to two of the greatest sportsmen who strode our green and grassy land.

Well, it’s not. It’s akin to celebrating the films of Sir Peter Jackson with a 30-second cartoon, author Katherine Mansfield with a comic strip, and Sir Edmund Hillary by clambering up the Port Hills.

It’s a jacked up trophy for a jacked up entertainment extravaganza in which rugby players and recently retired cricket internationals (depending on your version of recent) will do something that may appear similar to cricket.

It’s one part-cricket, one partrugby, one-part entertainment, and a great dollop of spicy PR spin squirted into the mix to make this trumped up Duco Frankenstein’s lab of a ‘‘sports’’ event appear spicy.

If the Lomu-Crowe Trophy is iconic, it is only because it personifies two late sporting icons, men who transcended sport to earn national – global even – recognition.

Crowe in full flight was a magnificent sight personifying all that is beautiful about our summer game.

A complex personality, he entertained through his drive to perfect a frustrating, mentally frustrating game.

Crowe oversaw a decade of great success for New Zealand cricket. By the time Crowe retired from test cricket in 1995 he scored the most runs by any New Zealander (5444), made the most centuries (17), had the highest score (299), and averaged 45.36.

His courage when afflicted with cruel cancer in 2012 simply enhanced his standing.

Softly spoken, Lomu too was the real deal, bursting on to the scene at the World Cup in the year Crowe retired, flattening hapless tacklers, or speeding around them to capture fans across the globe, and outside rugby.

His untimely death 20 years later was greeted with global gloom.

As a simple example, his