West Indian Cricket team which has produced all-time cricketing greats like Vivian Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Clive Lloyd, Desmond Haynes and Gary Sobers etc can be proud to add one more name to its long list of cricketing greats. Brian Charles Lara, called the Prince of Trinidad, has been the face of West-Indian cricket for the past decade.
The speciality about Brian Lara is that he can single-handedly take the team to victory no matter how strong the opposing force is. There are many occasions in which Lara has helped WI to victory even though he was running short of partners. The best I can think of is when Aus toured WI in 1999. Brian Lara single handedly won the 2nd and 3rd tests for WI with scores of 213 and 153* respectively. One more instance is when he annihilated Muttiah Muralidharan in 2001 to score 531 runs against Sri Lanka in the 3 match series.
He is one of the exciting cricketers of recent times. When he gets going with the bat, there arent many who can match for sheer electrifying entertainment. May be Flintoff hits the farthest, VVS flicks it the best and the Sachin cuts it with greater control but very few can keep you at the edge of seat as Brian Lara. One thing that differentiates Lara from all others is his determination. If he decides he is going to make a good score and lead West Indies to victory then not even the best bowler in his best form can stop Lara. That too considering the fall of the West Indies team post 1990’s Lara has been the single hope for them many a times. Thats why I call Lara the KING of Bad Times.
Brian Lara made his test debut against Pakistan in the year 1990/91 at Lahore and in the same year made his one-day international debut against Pakistan. I have viewed his game from his early days and feel he can really be destructive player when he gets going. His style of batting was a little different those days. He had a typical stylish flaunt or extension of the bat before he played each ball in the early 1990’s.
His timing and placement was superb and was regarded as the worlds best batsman ahead of Tendulkar till about the mid 1990’s. The problem with Lara is controlling his mind. Thats where Tendulkar seems to get ahead of him..but in terms of sheer talent and skills he is at par or even better than most in recent times. His record still looks impressive, considering his usual moodiness and loss of form. If you are interested on how his record looks like as on Dec 10, 2004.
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct
Batting & Fielding 244 237 26 8921 169 42.27 79.30 18 55 102
TESTS
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct
Batting & Fielding 112 197 6 10094 400* 52.84 59.96 26 46 147
Brian Lara has captained the West Indies side from 1998. His captaincy record does not look handsome. One reason for his dismal captaincy record could be the West Indies team itself, which rarely has any good players like the WI team of the early 1980’s. Apart from that Brian Lara really is a moody player which is not good for a captain.
One more distinct feature of his cricketing career is the records that he holds..Take a look at some of them and decide for yourself.
He became the first man to score 7 centuries in 8 first-class innings (for Warwickshire),
The historic record of 375 against England beating Gary Sobers 364 in the test match against England in 1994
First to score 400* in a single innings of test match beating Mathew Haydens 380.
Most runs in a single over against Lance Klusener (28 runs).
(my extract from https://rediff.com/cricket/2001/jul/30bat100.htm)
Lara has played some of the most brilliant innings in recent years. In Wisden publication of the top 100 list in July 2001 (This included all the test matches played till now), 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. This innings surely is one of the best test innings I have ever seen, as he grilled bowlers like McGrath, Warne and Gillespie to take WI to victory even though he was running short of partners.
Lara’s record-breaking 375 against England was placed in 10th position. His 213 against Australia in the same 1998-1999 series was placed in the 14th position. - this was one more example of his determination.
In the recent times Lara showed his determination as captain when he won the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 for West Indies. He and his team dedicated it to the hurricane victims of the Carribeans. Lets hope after this victory, WI team and Brain Lara come back to the old form and force they were once...
Thank for reading my review. Your comments on the review are welcome.