Brian Lara

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC (born 2 May 1969, in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is a former West Indian cricketer, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.^[1][2] He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records. He holds the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history.^[3] He also holds the record for the highest individual score in a test innings after scoring 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004.^[4] Remarkably, he is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career.^{[5] [6]} Lara also holds the test record of scoring most number of runs in a single over in a Test match, when he scored 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003.^[7]

Lara's match-winning performance of 153 not out against Australia in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1999 has been rated by Wisden as the second best batting performance in the history of Test cricket, next only to the 270 runs scored by Sir Donald Bradman in The Ashes test match of 1937.^[8] Muttiah Muralitharan, rated as the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack,^[9] and the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket^[10] and in One Day Internationals (ODIs),^[11] has hailed Lara as his toughest opponent among all batsmen in the world.^[12] Lara was awarded the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World awards in 1994 and 1995^[13] and is also one of only three cricketers to receive the prestigious BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, the other two being Sir Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne.^[14] Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as The Prince of Trinidad or simply The Prince.^[1]

Career:

Barack Obama and Lara during the US President's tour of Trinidad and Tobago in 2009. Obama had asked to meet Lara, whom he described as the "Michael Jordan of cricket".^[17]

Lara holds several world records for high scoring. He has the highest individual score in both first-class cricket (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994) and Test cricket (400 not out for the West Indies against England in 2004). Lara amassed his world record 501 in 474 minutes off only 427 balls. He hit 308 in boundaries (10 sixes and 62 fours). His partners were Roger Twose (115 partnership - 2nd wicket), Trevor Penney (314 - 3rd), Paul Smith (51 - 4th) and Keith Piper (322 unbroken - 5th). Earlier in that season Lara scored six centuries in seven innings while playing for Warwickshire.

He is the only man to have reclaimed the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. His 400 not out also made him the second player after Donald Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored nine double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve. In 1995 Lara in the test match away series against England, scored 3 hundreds in Three consecutive Matches which earned him the Man of the Series award. The Test Series was eventually drawn 2-2. He also held the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking Allan Border in an innings of 226 played at Adelaide Oval, Australia in November 2005.

However this was broken by Sachin Tendulkar of India on October 17, 2008 whilst playing against Australia at Mohali in the 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008. Hence, Tendulkar now holds the new world record of most runs in a Test Career.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1998 to 1999 in this period West Indies suffered their first whitewash at the hands of South Africa following this they played Australia in a four Test series which was drawn 2-2, Lara scored 546 runs including two centuries and one double hundred. In the second Test at Kingston he scored 213 while in the third Test he scored 153* in the second innings as West Indies chased down 311 with one wicket left. He won the Man of the Match award for both matches and was also named Man of the Series.

In 2001 Lara was named the Man of the Carlton Series in Australia with an average of 46.50 the highest average by a West Indian in that series scoring two half centuries and one century, 116 against Australia. Also in that year Lara amassed 688 runs in the three match away Test series against Sri Lanka making three centuries and one fifty including a double century and a century in the first and second innings of the 3rd Test Match at the Sinhalese Sports Ground making 42% of the team's runs in that series. These extraordinary performances led Muttiah Muralitharan to state that Lara was the most dangerous batsman he had ever faced.^[18]

Lara was reappointed as captain against the touring Australians in 2003, and struck 110 in his first Test match back in charge, showing signs of him returning to his best. Later that season under his captaincy West Indies won the two match Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 with Lara making a double century in the First Test. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy.

In March 2005, Lara declined selection for the West Indies team because of a dispute over his personal Cable & Wireless sponsorship deal, which clashed with the Cricket Board's main sponsor, Digicel. Six other players were involved in this dispute, including stars Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo. Lara said he declined selection in a stand of solidarity, when these players were dropped because of their sponsorship deals.^[19] The issue was resolved after the first Test of the series against the touring South African team.

Lara returned to the team for the second Test (and scored a huge first innings score of 196), but in the process lost his captaincy indefinitely to the newly-appointed Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the next Test, against the same opponents, he scored a 176 in the first innings. After a one day series against South Africa, he scored his first Test century against the visiting Pakistanis in the first Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados which the West Indies eventually won.

On 26 April 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time. This followed the resignation of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had been captain for thirteen months - in which the West Indies won just one of the 14 Test matches they had competed. In May 2006, Lara led the West Indies to successful One-Day series victories against Zimbabwe and India. Lara's team played Australia in the finals of the DLF Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy where they finished runners up in both finals.

On 16 December 2006 he became the first player for the West Indies to pass 10,000 One Day International runs.^[20] along with Sachin Tendulkar one of only two players, at the time, to do so in both forms of the game. On 10 April 2007 Lara confirmed his retirement from one day cricket post the 2007 Cricket World Cup.^[21] A few days later he announced that he would in fact be retiring from all international cricket after the tournament.^[22]

Lara played his final international game on 21 April 2007 in a dead rubber World Cup game against England. He was run out for 18; England won the game. Before the end of this World Cup Glenn McGrath stated that Lara is the greatest batsman that he has ever bowled to.^[23]

Retirement:

Lara during his lap of honour, 2007 CWC.

On 19 April 2007 Lara announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, indicating that the West Indies vs England match on 21 April 2007 would be his last international appearance.^[24] He was run out after a bad mixup with Marlon Samuels for 18, as England went on to win the match by one wicket.^[25]

He announced before the 2007 Cricket World Cup that this would be his last appearance in one day internationals. After his last match, in the post-game presentation interview, he asked the fans, "Did I entertain?", to which he received a resounding "Yes!" from the West Indies fans, after which he went out and took his 'lap of honor' where he met and shook hands with many of the fans. This marked the last time Lara would play actively in the game.

It should be noted that while Lara has gone on record as saying that this would be his last appearance in international cricket, he has also indicated his interest in retaining some involvement in the sport.

On 23 July 2007 Lara agreed to sign for the Indian Cricket League.^[26] He is currently the captain of the Mumbai Champs.

Brian Lara volunteered to play for his home team Trinidad during the start of 2008 domestic season. He had not played for Trinidad for the last two years. He made his comeback a memorable one with a match winning hundred over Guyana, followed by a dismissive undefeated half-century in the second innings, scored at over two runs per ball.

In the third round game (Trinidad got a bye in the second round), Brian Lara suffered a fractured arm against the Leeward Islands in St Maarten on Jan 19th.

Brian Lara is not playing in the current season of ICL due to a broken arm. Though it was expected that the arm would heal in 6 weeks, it did not and he is still nursing the injury. Recently BCCI has granted amnesty to ICL players, so Brian Lara may start playing for one of IPL leagues, which has greater following than ICL.

Controversies:

On the fourth day of the first test match at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's, Antigua during India's tour of West Indies, 2006, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's flick off Dave Mohammed to the midwicket region was caught by Daren Ganga. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Rahul Dravid declared the innings when confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire's verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara wanted Dhoni to walk-off based on the fielder's assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes. Ultimately, Dhoni walked-off and Dravid's declaration was effected but the game was delayed. Lara was called by the match referee for explanation of his actions but was not fined.^[27]

Highlights:

Brian Lara's career performance graph.

• Lara struck 277 runs against Australia in Sydney, his maiden Test century, the fourth highest maiden Test century by any batsman,^[30] the highest individual score in all Tests between the two teams and the fourth-highest century ever recorded against Australia by any Test batsman.
• He became the first man to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings, the first being the record 375 against England and the last being the record 501 not out against Durham.
• After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record for highest individual score 375 by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record scoring 400 not out in 2004 against England. With these innings he became the second player to score two Test triple centuries, the second player to score two career quadruple centuries, the only player to achieve both these milestones, and regained the distinction of being the holder of both the record first-class individual innings and the record Test individual innings. He is the only player to break the world record twice.
• In the same innings, he became the second batsman to score 1000 Test runs in five different years, four days after Matthew Hayden first set the record.
• He was the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, a record he attained on 26 November 2005^[31] until surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar on 17 October 2008.
• He was the fastest batsmen to score 10,000 (with Sachin Tendulkar) and 11,000 Test runs, in terms of number of innings.^[32]
• He scored 34 centuries; joint-third along with Sunil Gavaskar, on the all-time list behind Sachin Tendulkar (42) and Ricky Ponting (37).^[33]
  • He has the most centuries for a West Indian^[34]
  • Nine of his centuries are double centuries (surpassed only by Donald Bradman)^[34]
  • Two of them are triple-centuries (matched by Bradman^[34] and India's Virender Sehwag).
  • He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations. He achieved this feat in 2005 by scoring his first Test century against Pakistan at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.
• He became only the sixth batsman to score a century in one session, doing so against Pakistan on 21 November 2006.^[35]
• Lara has scored an astonishing 20% of his team runs,^[36] a feat surpassed only by Bradman (23%) and George Headley (21%). Lara scored 688 runs (42% of team output, a record for a series of three or more Tests, and the second highest aggregate runs in history for a three-Test series) in the 2001-02 tour of Sri Lanka.^[37]
• He also scored a century and a double century in the third Test in that same Sri Lanka tour, a feat repeated only five other times in Test cricket history.^[38]

• The first was the unenviable one of becoming the batsman to score the most runs (351) on a losing side in a Test.
• The second record was that he became the batsman to score the largest proportion (53.83 per cent) of his team's runs in a Test (221 out of 390 and 130 out of 262). He eclipsed the long-standing record of 51.88 per cent by the South African J. H. Sinclair (106 out of 177 and 4 out of 35) against England at Cape Town in an 1898 - 1899 series.

^[39]

• Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs in a single over (28 runs against left-arm spinner RJ Peterson of South Africa) in Test cricket.^[40] He also scored 26 runs in a single over off the bowling of Danish Kaneria at Multan Cricket Stadium on 21 November 2006.
• He scored the ninth fastest Test century, doing so off 77 balls against Pakistan on 21 November 2006.^[41]
• With 164 catches, He is the fourth all-time catch-taker of non-Wicketkeepers, behind Rahul Dravid, Mark Waugh and Stephen Fleming.^[42]
• In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
• Comfortably averaging over 50 per innings (the benchmark for batting greatness in Test cricket), Lara has been ranked the number one batsman in Test cricket in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Cricket Ratings several times.^[43]
• Lara has played some of his best 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 (the most for any batsman in that range).^[44] 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, PricewaterhouseCoopers 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. His 375 was placed 8th and his three other innings, including the 153 not out, were not far behind.
• Lara holds the third fastest century in ODIs, 45 balls against Bangladesh in 1999.
• He is one of six batsmen to make a century before lunch.^[45]