Brian Lara

Brian Charles Lara (born May 2, 1969) (nicknamed "The Prince of Port-of-Spain" or simply "The Prince") is a West Indian cricketer. Lara is acknowledged as one of the world's greatest batsmen, having several times topped the Test batting rankings and being the current world record holder for the highest individual innings score and the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket.

Lara's career statistics suggest unmitigated genius, but in reality his career has been bedevilled by clashes with authority, injury and loss of form, all against the backdrop of West Indies being the strongest team in world cricket at the time of his debut (indeed, Lara was unable to break into the test side on his first tour with the side) but suffering a decline to the point where victories against leading test sides are few and far between. Many have wondered what Lara might have achieved had he been simply another great player in the all-conquering teams of the 1970s and 80s under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, rather than the sole great batsman carrying the hopes of a rapidly declining side.

Lara has shown an almost unparalleled ability to build massive innings, and 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). He also holds the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking Allan Border in November 2005. 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 Don Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored eight double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1997 to 1999. He 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. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy and seemed to have finally started their comeback from years of poor performance.

In March 2005, Lara, along with six other senior players, was dropped by the West Indies Cricket Board from the West Indies team over their personal Cable & Wireless sponsorship deals, which clashed with the Cricket Board's main sponsor, Digicel. 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 majestic 176 in the first innings, which was hailed by many as one of his best innings in recent years. After an indifferent one day series against South Africa, he once again established himself as one of the leading batsmen of the modern era when he scored his first Test century against the visiting Pakistanis in the first Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

On April 26 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 just 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

Biography

Brian was born in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago. He is 10th in a family of 11 children. His father Bunty Lara died in 1988. His mother Pearl Lara suffered from cancer and died in January 2002. He is also the father of an eight-year-old daughter called Sydney whom he had with Trinidadian model Leasel Rovedas.

From an early age, Lara showed precocious talent. His father Bunty and one of his older sisters were first to recognize young Brian's exceptional batting talents and enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of only six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in proper batting techniques.

Lara's first school was St. Joseph's Roman Catholic primary. He then went to San Juan secondary, but played no cricket there. A year later, at fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College. Lara moved in with his fellow Trinidadian Test player Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's father Joey Carew was very instrumental in his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at the Angostura Ltd. in the Marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but cricket was the path to recognition in Trinidad at the time. Lara wanted to emulate his idols: Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and the left-handed Roy Fredericks.

Lara began his cricket career while at school at Fatima College. When he was 14, he played in the under-16 and First Divisions of national schoolboys' cricket. He amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league that year with an astounding average of 126.16 per innings. Immediately afterwards he was selected for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under 19 youth tournament. In 1984, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 Test Cricket. 1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when he broke the West Indies youth batting record. In January, 1988, Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Barbados. The Bajan attack contained Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall. Lara batted nearly a full day and made 92. Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup. His innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the 1988-89 Indians elevated Lara's reputation even further. He was selected for the Port of Spain Test of that season. He did not play, however, due to suffering the personal setback of the death of his father. In 1989, he captained West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145 for the West Indies, a side that included several players with Test experience. In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest ever captain and won the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 & 6.

Lara loves carnivals, Chinese & Italian food, and is known to be a practical joker.

Career highlights

Lara showed his talent in his 5th Test, striking 277 runs against Australia in Sydney, his maiden Test century. It remains the fourth highest maiden Test century by any batsman. ^*. It was also the highest individual score in all Tests between the two teams, the fourth-highest ever recorded against Australia.
He became the first man to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings, the first being the historic record 375 against England and the last being the record 501 not out against Durham.
After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record 375 by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record — a unique feat — scoring 400 not out in 2004. With this innings he became the second player to score two Test 300s, the second player to score two career 400s, 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 all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, a record he attained on 26 November 2005. ^*
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 fastest batsmen to 9,000, 10,000 and 11,000 Test runs, in terms of number of innings. ^*
He has (as of November 2005) scored 31 centuries (the most for a West Indian and 4th for all Test cricket of which eight are double centuries (surpassed only by Bradman ^*). He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.
Lara fought many lone battles as the West Indies collective batting strength slumped over the years. He has scored an astonishing 20% of his team runs a feat surpassed only by Bradman (23%) and George Headley (21%). Lara scored 688 runs (a record 42% of team output and the second highest aggregate runs in history for a three-Test series) in the 2001-02 tour of Sri Lanka [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/HI_AGG_RUNS_IN_SERIES.html.
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 ^*.
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 fifth all-time in the category of most catches in a career by a non-Wicketkeeper behind Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor, Allan Border and Stephen Fleming.

^*.

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 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, 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.

Batting average

Lara's batting average in Tests is impressive, over 54 an innings and in One-day Internationals he averages over 41 an innings at a strike rate (number of runs scored per 100 balls) of close to 80. The following four graphs show his Test batting average over the years in four chronological sections:

Image:Lara_Career_Graph_1.gif|The beginning Image:Lara_Career_Graph_2.gif|First drop Image:Lara_Career_Graph_3.gif|Second drop Image:Lara_Career_Graph_4.gif|The rise

The beginning: his first 55 Test innings, from December 1990 to April 1996, with an average of 60.32
The first drop of his batting form: innings #56 to #103, November 1996 to March 1999, with an average of 36.00
Then second drop of his batting form: innings #108 to #138, April 1999 to April 2001, with an average of 30.58
The rise of his form in recent years: innings #139 to #197, April 2001 to August 2004, with an average of 64.93

Trivia

In a 1994 Bradman Foundation charity match, Lara was famously dismissed by Australian women's cricket team all-rounder, Zoe Goss.

Lara made 501 not out against Durham - while sponsored by a rival jeans company to Levi's.

External links

ব্রায়ান লারা | Brian Lara | Brian Lara

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Brian Lara

Biography

Career highlights

Batting average

Trivia

See also

External links