Me and my best friend, he being an extremist type / staunch supporter of today’s highly talented, ruthless, brain-teaser, spine-chiller and ever-green greats like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid and believe me there are many more in his list than mine but perhaps, (we argued several times on this issue) Brian Lara is the most lethal of them all.
He is ruthless of them all. Any bowler’s night-mare. He wreaks havoc whenever he goes out there to perform and plays every ball on its merit and bowler has no choice whatsoever but to forget his line and length.
Here is how I see this legendry figure of modern day Cricket. Maybe, I can compare him with Cricket’s Hall of Famers or Ever Greatest Legends like Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers and many others.
Fact file:
Full Name: Brian Charles Lara
Date of Birth (DOB): 5/2/69
From: Trinidad and Tobago
Best Known for: West Indies Cricket Captain. Also plays cricket for Northern Transvaal, Trinidad & Tobago, and Warwickshire
Bio: Currently ranked in the top 10 Test Cricket Batsmen or Bowlers by the highly recognised Pricewaterhouse Coopers rankings
Biography:
Lara’s cricketing career began while at school at Fatima College. Born to Bunty and Pearl Lara. He began making his mark at cricket while just 14, playing in the under-16 and First Divisions of national Schoolboys’ cricket.
Bunty Lara, Brian’s father, always took his son Brian with him to watch West Indies stars at play at the Queen’s park Oval, but also took the time to bowl to his talented son in his backyard from a very tender age, and later enrolled him at the Harvard Sports Club cricketing clinics.
But, the closest Bunty Lara would come to seeing his son’s rise to stardom was when he was named 12th man on the West Indies team in 1989, shortly before he died.
He has 10 brothers and sisters. Bunty & Brian were close.
He loves Carnival, Chinese & Italian foods, and is a practical jokester.
Career Highlights:
He is a charismatic star. They say that big things come in small packages.
A star debuted and played his first test match against Pakistan in December 1990 at Lahore scoring a classy 44, and stayed there with Carl Hooper to rescue West Indies from a precarious position.
But this was only a beginning to a very illustrious career spanning over 16 years.
Lara gave notice of the greatness to come in the Red Stripe Cup of 1994, averaging 79.44 for the series.
Then he burst on the international scene against England the same year, the man dubbed Prince of Port-of-Spain, who, calmly and classically stroking the world record 375 on the Antigua Recreation Ground, surpassing West Indies compatriot and idol, Sir Garfield Sobers’ 365 not out against Pakistan.
Only eight weeks had elapsed, when Lara, playing for Warwickshire against Durham, became the first ever batsman to score more than 500 runs in a single innings - 501 not out, after batting for just eight hours.
He bats left-handed and his bowling style in the leg breaker. Broke Sir Garfield Sobers test match record of 365 not-out on 18th April 1994, scoring 375 against England in St. Johns Antigua. Scored 501 not-out in first-class cricket with Warwickshire vs Durham in Edgbaston Birmingham UK June 1998, the highest amount ever.
A devastating batsman when in form, Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs (28) in a single over in Test cricket.
He is fourth all-time in the category of most catches in a career by a non-Wicketkeeper.
In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Comfortably averaging over 50 per innings (the benchmark for batting greatness in Test cricket), Lara has often been ranked the number one batsman in Test cricket according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Cricket Ratings.
Lara has played some of the most brilliant innings in recent years. Wisden published a top 100 list in July 2001, a distillation of the best performances from 1, 552 Tests, 54, 494 innings and 29, 730 bowling performances. Three innings by Lara were placed in the top 15. His heroic 153 not out in Bridgetown, Barbados, during West Indies’ 2-2 home series draw against Australia in 1998-1999 was deemed the second greatest Test innings ever played, behind Bradman’s 270 against England in the Third Test of the 1936-1937 series at Melbourne. On 13 October, 2003, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Ratings team published a list of top innings since 1990 under their own methodology. Lara’s 213 against Australia in Kingston, Jamaica in 1999 came out to be the top innings.
Lara reiterated his genius by single-handedly defying the 1998-99 Australian tourists with a sequence of 213, 8, 153 not out and 100. Lara returned to his best in Sri Lanka in 2001-02, with 221 and 130 in one Test and 688 runs - a record 42% of West Indies’ output - in the series, and reclaimed the captaincy the following year. The task proved as hard second time round, leading a side where he was far and away the best player and where discipline was a constant worry. He led them to defeat for a second time in South Africa, and then lost to England in the Caribbean, too. But then, just when all hope seemed to have deserted West Indies cricket, Lara responded to the prospect of a home series whitewash with an astonishing unbeaten 400 in the final Test against England in Antigua. In doing so, he became the first man to reclaim the world Test batting record, a feat that ensured he would stand alongside Shane Warne as the most charismatic cricketer of the modern era.
During his career he is known to party hard the night before important test games, then go out the next day and wreak havoc on his opponents as both Jamaica (180 runs)and Barbados (148) can verify in Red Stripe Caribbean Cup games.
Batting and fielding averages
class mat inns no runs hs ave
Tests 124 219 6 11294 400* 53.02
ODIs 266 258 27 9537 169 41.28
First-class 252 424 11 21312 501* 51.60
List A 396 380 38 13734 169 40.15
Courtesy: Statsguru (Cricinfo.com)
Before putting my review on MS, I am sending an email to my friend about my review and I will take that argument later to the MS, as I know that he will come up with something against Brian Charles Lara.
I do not know how my review will be rated but I have more and more things coming to my mind about this little genius of Cricket.
I am eagerly waiting to see him clash with India on India’s tour of the Carribean and by the time I am writing this review, India have beaten West Indies by 5 wickets in the first ODI at Sabina Park, with Rahul Dravid making another brilliant century and overshadowed hard work put earlier by Chris Gayle. Gayle also made 123.
Nonetheless, he is Greatest of them all and it will take centuries that a star of his stature is born.
Thanks for reading.