CHRONICLE OF THE PRINCE (originally published in Generation Lion magazine #1)

BRIAN LARA- Ready for Next
by Rubadiri Victor

501*, 400*, 375. 277, 213, 153*- ICONIC, TALISMANIC NUMBERS. ALL REPRESENT INNINGS THAT NOT ONLY HAVE BEEN LIFELINES TO A TEAM AND A REGION UNDER SEIGE, BUT ALSO HAVE BEEN SUBLIME WORKS OF ART THAT HAVE CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION OF THE WORLD. EACH OF THESE INNINGS (AND SO MANY MORE) ARE MONUMENTS ERECTED BY A BOY PRINCE WHO HAS BECOME BY SHEER GENIUS AND ‘BAD MIND’ A PIONEER, LEADER, REBEL AND A LONELY WARRIOR.

HE IS ALREADY AN IMMORTAL- ONE OF THOSE SPORTSMEN WHO’S NAME WILL BE CELEBRATED THROUGH THE AGES ALONGSIDE THE LIKES OF ‘PELE’, ‘JORDAN’, ‘TIGER’ AND ‘ALI’. BUT HE WILL SAY ‘LEAVE HISTORY FOR THE HISTORIANS’ BECAUSE HE IS NOW ENGAGED IN THE GREATEST INNINGS OF HIS LIFE- BATTLING TO TRANSFORM A CRUMBLED WEST INDIAN CRICKET TEAM BACK INTO CONSISTENT WORLD BEATERS AND ONCE AGAIN KINGS OF THE WORLD.

IT IS AN INNINGS THAT WILL DEMAND NOT ONLY EVERY SINGLE IOTA OF HIS LEGENDARY CONCENTRATION, CRICKETING INTELLIGENCE AND BATTING GENIUS, BUT HIS NOT-SO-LEGENDARY PEOPLE SKILLS AS WELL.

ALL THE SAME A SUPERHUMAN WALKS AMONG US- HIS NAME: BRIAN CHARLES LARA.


“For wholesome mastery, there’s Tendulkar; for wizardry there’s Warne; for technical virtuosity there’s Dravid; and to bat for your life there’s Steve Waugh. But for light and song, for bliss and glory, and for lifting the soul, who else but Brian Lara.”

Arguably the greatest batsman in the world and certainly the most devastating and most beautiful to watch ever when in song. Holder of multiple world and West Indian records, pioneer in spaces no mortal has ever trod before. Captain. Warrior. Leader. Prince. It is easy to get caught up in superlatives trying to tie down the length, breadth and depth of Brian Lara’s accomplishments, impact, power and mystery. Even in reciting the many super-human landmarks it becomes dis-orienting and easy to forget the way each one stopped the world when they happened. Certainly no other cricketer has stopped the world so many times as we followed him into regions unexplored.

And what places he has gone and taken us: 400, 375, 501, 277, the Kensington win in the greatest Test match of all time, resisting Australia with 213, 153 and then 100- drawing the series and saving the captaincy, destroying Muralitharan on the way to a series average of 114, authoring the two greatest run chase victories in history, resisting the Australian pace attack to register his first 100 on his home ground in Trinidad, taking the most amount of runs off an over in a Test to save the follow-on in South Africa…The most noble cricketer and sportsman, who will walk even if the technology didn’t pick it up… The list is endless- countless innings of such beauty, authority and necessity that were so indispensable to the West Indian nation that he is more Prime Minister and leader by right than most that currently occupy the posts in CARICOM.

But Brian Lara is more than the sum of all these things, simply because of the place that cricket holds in the West Indies. West Indies cricket is the place where our nation exists. It is the prophecy of what we must be, it is the codes and lessons of strategies of how we must move. It is the unexplored country of ourself. It is the place where- through the forces of great men and history- we have been allowed to be all that we can be and where our possibilities- tragic and triumphant are writ large. And if West Indies cricket is the door to the region then Brian Lara right now is the key. Located in him is the secret to unlock all that we are. Too much to ask of a mere cricketer? But this is not a mere cricketer at all. His many moments and triumphs have not been just personal accomplishments but struggles and victories that carried our Kingdom, our nation, our region and our home further to some sort of self-definition.

Located in Lara is our larger idea- the Caribbean idea which is the largest idea that this planet has to deal with. The idea of freedom and of how to be free. It is the idea and the question that the Caribbean has been answering since Amerindians lived here and since the first slave resisted the collar and the lash. It has remained our gift and being. How at all times to be free. It is that sweet phrase that is coded in the curl of Brian’s bat. And now here are the superlatives. In Brian is our West Indian light, song, laughter, impatience, intelligence, cunning, agility, rhythm, resistance to oppressive authority, grace, quickness, brashness, nobility, fairness, passion, biological connection to ancestral grace, wit and childish enjoyment of the world. At his best this is what we see and know for sure about ourself when he see him play. The wrestle he has engaged in to know himself to liberate that art is also part of the revelation to us.

This is not to say that Lara’s career or persona is all roses. He has probably been as reviled as he has been loved and his personal life and life off the pitch has been fraught with scandal. Even his relationship with cricket and West Indies cricket has been problematic, culminating with his now infamous quote, “Cricket is ruining my life.” The Beatlemania-like world tour and adulation that followed his 375 and 501- added to by the huge problems of WICB cricket administration and West Indies cricket- saw him being unable to cope. A string of injuries, tempestuous battles with the Board and older players, and a fall in form followed and it seemed it was the end of the fire. Lara’s journey to personal and career redemption has been also a maturing for West Indies cricket, its players, administration and the region as well. One writer has even said that Lara’s personal road to recovery and redemption is in fact the greatest innings of his life.

But there are certain things you only have to see and they instinctively register in you the full force of ‘the idea’ of where you are from. There is so much history, spirit, messages and power contained in them. They embody an Age. Viv Richards chewing gum and walking to the crease. Bob Marley on stage or doing just about anything. The sound of certain rhythms- like a good rhythm section… In other countries this list would multiply to include hundreds of architectural edifices that house a people’s pride- but we have not built those. It would have included heroes from our films, TV shows, comic books or theatre- but we have not allowed those to be created.

It would have included icons from our history- but they have not been allowed to be uncovered and given back to us. So what we West Indians have left is all these things summed up in the moments of majesty from our sporting or musical heroes. At that ‘moment of connection’ all the things that we are, all that we have accomplished and built and failed to build is in them. And probably none more than in Brian Lara’s mind, spirit and heart made visible in his innings and stroke play. That is what we instinctively know and recognize. There is nothing like it on the face of the earth because there is nothing like us on the face of the earth. Nothing like Anansi, Shiva, Shango, Toussaint, CLR James, Viv, Sobers, Headley, Martin Carter, Che Guevara and Fidel, Walcott, Leroy Clarke, Minshall, Sailor mas, fishermen, wirebenders, cooks, bois men, pan men, indentureds, ex-slaves, free migrants all at the same time. This is what we are and what he reminds of. Man there was a double rainbow around the sun when he scored the 375…

There is an anecdote told about Brian where the entire English touring team went to practice in the nets in the East and encountered a little boy there that they could not get out for the entire day. The entire vanguard of the English bowling attack could not dislodge the youth. The boy of course was Brian giving the English a taste of humility to come.

This year Lara won Trinidad and Tobago’s Sportsman of the year a record-tying 5th time having previously won in 1993, 94, 99 and 2001. He got the judges nod based on the following accomplishments in 2003: he passed the record for the highest number of catches by a West Indian; he passed the record for the highest amount of runs by a West Indian (both surpassing the incomparable Sir Vivian Richards); in the home series against Australia he scored 533 runs at an average of 66.9 and also crossed a personal milestone of claiming his first Test Century in Trinidad on his home Queens Park pitch; he also scored a double century of 209 in the first test against Sri Lanka and later 3 superlative one day centuries. In all for the year he scored 4 Test centuries. He began the year with a swashbuckling 116 in the opening match of the World Cup against favourite South Africa which set up a sensational win. He also led the West Indies to their most creditable showings overseas in years. He made most of his 1,344 runs against the best opposition in the world- Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka. He batted 19 times and his average stay at the crease was two hours and 35 minutes- that is incredible- facing an average of approximately 100 balls per innings for his 74.66 batting average! That was his 2003.

Wisden Asia bears quoting at length; “For wholesome mastery, there’s Tendulkar; for wizardry there’s Warne; for technical virtuosity there’s Dravid; and to bat for your life there’s Steve Waugh. But for light and song, for bliss and glory and for lifting the soul, who else but Brian Lara. Waugh can match Lara’s ability to raise his game when the stakes are at the highest, but not his craft. When Waugh engages in combat, he digs a trench, summons his inner reserve and spills blood. In contrast, Lara pushes his game to the edge and unleashes his full repertoire of expansive strokes in the knowledge that the fate of the entire match could hang on one false stroke. Lara at his best restores cricket as a game of sublime skills and high art.
“The centuries don’t stack up in Lara’s case- 26 against Tendulkar’s 33 and Waugh’s 30- but if ever there was a case of parts being greater than the sum, there can’t be a more compelling one. He has failed more often than most greats, but oscillating between godliness and impoverishment, he has sculpted some of the most alluring masterpieces of modern times.”

CHILDHOOD
Brian Lara was born May 2 1969 in the village of Santa Cruz. Youngest of 7 brothers, he is one of 11 children who lost their father Bunty 15 years ago. "Dad was my driving force," he said. "Each Sunday we would be at coaching clinics together and he watched every match I played while growing up. I was first picked in the XII for the West Indies here in Trinidad in 1989 but did not make the final XI. Having previously suffered minor heart attacks, Dad had a fatal one on the first day of that game. He told one of my brothers to tell me not to worry anymore, that I had made it and would go on to great things. He is the person I miss the most."

Lara was a child of the 70s and 80s when West Indies cricket was omnipotent. "I learnt from the older heads about what cricket truly meant to our people, about the pride and the passion at every corner, about representing the West Indies in the right way. Though it is only a game, it becomes more than that here and is sensationalised perhaps even beyond its place. The modern player does not see it the same way, which is not that he does not regard it as a great honour to play for the West Indies because he does. It's just that, well, in those days the players had to pay for their own tickets; nowadays they get paid for every item they wear on their body. It's different, that's all, and not really better for it."

One cannot help but think that Lara wishes he were born an age earlier. Losing hurts, whatever the personal performance, and his coach, Gus Logie never played in a losing series. How then will the present captain cope? Not only with his own brooding frustrations but with the gathering criticisms of his ability to mould a young team into winners?

CRISES AND CAPTAINCY
Accusations that Brian carries at least some of the responsibility for the steady decline in West Indies Cricket abound and he has many high-profile detractors, many linger along the line of Tony Cozier: “His tactics never conventional have simply become increasingly bizarre.” But can Lara be held culpable for the failure to build institutions by the West Indian Cricket Board and our political and economic class? It is apparent to anyone with eyes that many of the games are lost long before they reach the pitch- the failures of the boys in the middle are the result of the absence of institutions- not on-the-field decisions.

Despite all the criticism leveled at him I firmly believe that: one- Brian Lara is not as selfish as people believe him to be and that many of the things people have thought selfish were in fact Lara making larger ideological, institutional and developmental calculations- even projecting results into the future; two- that Lara cares more about West Indies cricket and the region and understands the phenomena of it more than his detractors; three- that Lara is in fact an extremely brilliant individual, much, much more intelligent than his detractors think (and are) and much more intelligent than they can comprehend; and four- Lara is being made the scapegoat for failures resulting from the absence of the most fundamental Cricketing and cultural institutions (a direct result of the ideological crisis of Independence generation leaders). These absences have made this Generation Lion weak in many areas whilst being blest with raw Caribbean beauty.

But Lara’s ascendancy though fated by prodigious talent was always shadowed by his rubbing the powers-that-be the wrong way. He first represented West Indies at under-19 level in 1984. In 1988 he made his debut for Trinidad. In 1989 he captained West Indies B team to Zimbabwe but was forced to fight for a place in the sun. He was unable to win a place in the team until Viv, Greenidge and Dujon all departed- safely losing at least 3 years of his cricketing life. He finally made his debut against Pakistan in Lahore in the Third test in 1990 making 44 and 6. By his 5th innings he had scored the sparkling 277. In 1995 he walked out of the West Indies tour of England after a dressing room row at the end of the fourth test but was persuaded to rejoin 4 days later.

Later that year he walked out of the tour of Australia 2 days before the squad left the Caribbean following a fine by the WICB disciplinary committee. In 1996 he was reprimanded for derogatory remarks attributed to him following a World Cup defeat by Kenya and for an altercation with team physio Australian Denis Waight on flight from Bombay to London following the World Cup. He then froze the South African tour whilst holding out for better WICB treatment of players- former, current and future. In each of his fracas he was fighting for progressive changes to be made and had massive disagreements with the way things were being conceptualized and managed. In each scenario he was able to usher in changes and push the dialogue of transformation further. Since then he has learnt to fight his battles more diplomatically

It is telling that one of his supporters is Clive Lloyd probably one of the most sober, intelligent and pragmatic minds the game of cricket has ever seen. To Lara he said, “You have always led from the front, and that is one of the foremost qualities of a leader.” It is not for nothing that he has been at different times apellated ‘Captain Fantastic’ and ‘Captain Courageous’. The thing that some people may not want to countenance is that Lara may be a great captain molding and getting performances out of at first a mediocre and then a hopelessly young and inexperienced team. And that he may be more committed and knowledgeable about the game and the way forward for West Indies cricket than nearly every body that is above him in administration.

HIGHLIGHTS AND ACCOLADES
Lara has always had to answer doubters with his bat, and he has. Great things have been authored by its blade, so much so that it may be time for his critics to back off. Even Sir Donald Bradman did not hold the world record twice, and it is only Bradman who has twice made three hundred in a Test innings. For all the protestations about having become a modern-day accumulator, Lara remains the game's most precious and most natural entertainer.

The adjectives have been lush- ‘virtuoso batting’, ‘transcendent skills’- and none superfluous. Just some snapshots- Who can forget Lara arcing, dodging and grafting in pitched battle against Australian Brett Lee to post his first home Test century. Fireworks. Then in his last 12 Tests before the English series and his 400 the enigmatic genius racked up 2 double centuries, 4 centuries and 6 50s and rolled past a host of historic milestones. Then who could forget that trot of divine form following the 375- Lara scored 6 centuries in seven innings for Warwickshire in the English county championship 147, 106, 120 not out, 136, 26, 140, culminating in the world record 501 against Durham.

And then there was South Africa against whom he had not scored a century in 11 previous tests and averaged a mediocre 30. It was a ledger that was soon changed. In the 4 Tests of the last series Lara accumulated 531 runs at an average of 66.37. He was off to a flier with his sixth double hundred where he took Robin Peterson for 28 runs in on over. Another test record. His 24th test century carried him past 9000 runs in 177 innings. No one had ever reached the figure quicker. Geoffrey Boycott says he has seen only three batsmen who possess genius, Sobers, Viv Richards and Lara. Many would agree.

Now to add to his list of accomplishments Brian is also the fastest player to 10 000 runs in just 111 Test matches- with a flurry passing Tendulkar to open up a huge lead. Lara’s accumulation of runs is all the more staggering when you consider that he has been probably given more wrongful dismissals than any other mainline batsman- ever. In just the recently concluded England Tour no fewer than 3 out of the 8 times he was dismissed was the decision patently wrong- all at crucial times of the innings. 2 were in the series-deciding opener at historic Lords. Lara was visibly aggrieved and protested. Whispers of conspiracy against the Prince have abounded- to add to the cargo plane of real plots against the Windies. Lara’s response was pure class- cheeky and subversive in the true West Indian spirit- he sat with his pads on for the remainder of the match on the balcony and sent a note to the referees and umpires stating, “I still find it impossible not to walk when I know I am out.” It was a shot heard around the world and may be the tipping factor in an overhaul of umpiring in cricket.

Lara scored his 10,000th Test runs in that same series when he made 7 against England in the 3rd Test at Old Trafford. Only the fourth man to score 10,000 Lara reached the landmark in his 111th Test and 195th innings. That was 13 matches quicker and 17 innings fewer than India great Sunil Gavaskar- previously the quickest Test batsman to five figures. Lara reached the landmark with a square driven four off all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. Australian duo Allan Border and Steve Waugh are the other batsmen to have scored 10,000. To add another dimension to his game Brian is also one of the great fielders in the game holding the West Indian record for catches. His favourite position is in slips and he does not often put a ball down.

TECHNIQUE AND IMPACT
“And in that split-second you hold your breath, because against the fastest bowling he is already there waiting, so that for a moment all is poised, impending… Who is Brian Lara, this short, good-looking young man who but for cricket might be quite inconspicuous, with his slow, slightly slurred, drear-note'd speech, and his veiled eye? To whom among his peers shall we compare him?”

Wayne Brown in a definitive essay on Lara called Lara Unbound had these things to say, “Each ball he faces is wrapped in its own mini-drama; each stroke that uncoils from the spring of that high back-lift thrills its audience. He is capable of the outrageous but of the ordinary, too; of the sublime, the severe and the succinct. He is a priceless cricketer, much needed by a game that is challenged and a nation who have lost their way. Those who put him down should consider this before they do so…”

”Lara isn't orthodox. He has, or invents on the run, more strokes than Sobers ever had (or needed). And he is faster on his feet than Sobers. But the real difference isn't that. Lara dislikes the ball and means to drive it away from him. Sobers used to co-opt it. Lara in full cry will bloody a bowler and leave him wishing he were dead. Sobers used to make bowlers fall in love with him.Every ball bowled to Lara is to him an adventure, a brand new problem or window of delight; and the question you see him asking in that split-second pause is: 'By what inventive chord-of-a-stroke shall this one be put away?' When he winds up dead-batting, Lara feels it as a constriction, an interruption of what he's there for. For all his elan, he is at heart a marauder, a taker-apart of a fielding side…

“Watching, at the end of the 1996 Australian tour, Brian Lara weep in the dressing room- Lara alone of all the team weeping, because he, Brian Lara, had not been born to lose a Test series after 23 years- the same thought occurred to me: 'He will not cry like that again…” Lara was four years old when the West Indies ceased losing: losing, to him, had to secrete a novel horror. The result is that it all comes down on him; he takes the strain of each game's outcome unto himself. And that is genius in perpetual exile from its home in inutility.

“We are closer now perhaps to understanding Lara's terrible soul's-cry in the mid-90s: 'Cricket is ruining my life!' Embittered by the collapse of the West Indies, and by Lara's own frequent failures, few West Indians were disposed at the time to credit the profound depths from which that cri-de-coeur came. But it was the cry of genius corralled by exigency, burdened by the team's need with cares essentially alien to it.

Others too have tried to pin down his impact- “Love him, hate him, he is the name, the only name, from West Indian cricket in recent years that has had global relevance. Every moment of greatness, inspiration, the West Indies has produced since 1992 has involved Brian Lara. Every time the West Indies hit a brand new “rock bottom”, there was Lara.” “This, then, is Brian's life - adulation, adoration, exultation, and he is expected to remain as everyman. One critic thinks he is schizophrenic, another simply self-absorbed. Various former cricketers from other Caribbean islands knock him for selfish batting and dotty captaincy but they are jealous. I think he is overtaken by the startling events that surround him and is simply unable to stop the ride.”

“The first time he broke Sir Garfield Sobers's record he was given a mansion and the road it was built on, Independence Square was re-christened Brian Lara Promenade. This time he has been decorated from head to toe, sports facilities will be constructed in his honour, scholarships and bursaries awarded in his name. He has the world- but is the world enough?”

IN HIS OWN WORDS
"If I could chop my 400 up four times, over the four Tests, in order to have won the series and celebrated with the Wisden Trophy, I would do so," Lara said in an interview. "I don't want to be remembered for records, I want to be remembered like Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards, who must have such joyous memories of series won and of happiness through the team and all across the islands of the Caribbean."

"I have a lot to offer and one day it will come to the surface, but I am too human to tell you in what capacity for it will take its course. What happens, happens for a reason. What people say, they will say, but they are too judgemental. I need room, need space to be a catalyst. As things stand I have no control but a greater being will take me through." Is this a reference to religion? "Not directly, religion has often confused me (his mother Pearl, who died two years ago, was a Seventh-Day Adventist) but there is something there for sure, someone is watching over me."
He pauses to think. "The word is trust," Lara said quietly. "People such as Sir Viv and I are put in positions without the full backing of the people who put us there. It is all about trust, if they trust us we can do something, if not, well, then. . . "

What if he lost the captaincy, which after a succession of heavy defeats is a possibility? "I would play on and restructure myself while doing so. I am a servant of West Indies cricket, of my people here and of myself. Of course it can be taken away from me but that is out of my control, my reaction to it is not. For some reason, people forget how much I love cricket, that it is my life and has given me so much. If I came back in another life, I wouldn't want to be a golfer- and I do love my golf- or a basketball player, or a footballer, I'd want to be a cricketer again." This dear reader is a far cry from, “Cricket is ruining my life1”

"Believe me, I am a better player now than then, more mature, more understanding of the process of an innings and the threat of an opponent. I have scored more than 2,000 runs in the last 16 Tests, which speaks for itself.” What about the perceived weakness against the short ball that Andy Roberts and others have perceived. Michael Atherton once suggested Lara would not have been the same batsman in the pre-helmet days? "Hmmm, well, I've got a good record for someone who can't play the short ball. I've made many runs against Australia, South Africa and England.”

"I don't hook like I used to because most teams put two men back on the boundary straightaway. And I have never really ducked. Swaying is a problem when the ball follows you and occasionally I've got out fending it off. Fast bowlers have always hunted me and sometimes I have been unsettled but, you know, just look at the record. I am the fastest batsman to 9,000 runs, what else can I say!"

In response to the observation that his 400 showed more workmanlike-ness than genius he had this to say, "My game is mental. If you are fit you should not run out of steam physically but you can lose concentration. For me it is fun to find ways to make big scores. When I was younger my play was based on flair and flamboyance but now I have matured and am more prepared to accumulate. In the Antigua Test we had to avoid a whitewash, on a flat pitch I decided to focus on resisting the new ball, which meant overs 1-15; 81-95; 160-170. In between the field was set back and it was easier to pick off runs. This is 'my time', the new ball is 'their time'."

He finds it hard to explain why the first three Tests passed him by, refusing, absolutely, to blame the pitches: "Maybe it was just a weak period, it's happened before and will happen again. In many ways I have an unstable technique, which, from time to time, needs unraveling. From the start of the series I felt the ball would dominate the bat and England bowled very well, perhaps better than we expected. As a principle, I work on keeping my head steady, but have always had a bit of an up and down movement with that little jump across the crease as the bowler delivers. It is a question of degree and for a couple of weeks the degrees were slightly out."

Up on the mansion on the hill above the vast savannah, Lara throws parties for teams and close friends. Like Gatsby, he sometimes stands enigmatically apart, at other moments he could be out of Hollywood, meeting and greeting with a warm smile and a cold beer. With him at every opportunity is his 7-year-old daughter, Sydney, born of a woman who remains "a close friend".
Since his devastating comeback in Sri Lanka Lara has returned to cricket with a new-found purpose, balance and centredness. He openly professes to have fallen back in love with the game- which must sound like bad news to bowlers all over the world. He has announced that he is ready to devote his entire attention to cricket. In an interview with The Mail, Lara spelt out how his attitude towards the game had changed over the years.

"In the past I often reacted to what I perceived to be the stresses of cricket by getting away from it and hanging out with friends. Instead of confronting problems, I would turn my back on them. Now I've realised I want to give cricket 100%," he said. "I want to talk cricket like I did as a teenager, like the time I tried to sit Viv Richards down in the dressing room on my first tour to England and got told off for my trouble."

Lara stated that while the personal milestones remained, he was more keen to see the West Indian team develop into world-beaters. "I still have goals. I still want to look up and see my name but my main aim now is that I want to see West Indies moving on. It's great on the one hand to be doing what's necessary to represent my talent, but the bigger picture of wanting to do well is that, on my exit, we'll have a team capable of challenging the best."

"I'm having fun and a good group of younger players is really developing now. As long as things continue to go well for me when the World Cup comes to the Caribbean in 2007, a fit Brian Lara just looking on is not something I would want to happen. Sure, the relationship has been stormy at times. There have been some rocky moments. I've made some small mistakes and I've made some big mistakes. There have been times, like when I quit the captaincy or when we were being taken apart in Australia on the last tour there when I asked myself 'Do I need all this?' when I felt I wanted to just run away from it all.

"But right now, as far as my cricket is concerned, I am back in love with it. I've gone through a great learning experience and come out of it all a more mature and tolerant person. It has been a long road back but what I have come to realise is that I am in a much better mood when I give the game my all. When the pressure was at its greatest I used to tell myself something which has haunted me ever since. I used to say: 'Cricket has ruined my life'."

THE 7 GREATEST INNINGS
Prior to his record breaking 400 Wisden had asked 6 writers to recount Lara’s 6 greatest innings. Each innings and score is epic and iconic and the narratives are informative of the importance of this one man. In each of the innings chosen Brian entered the game with the side reeling and already facing an almost certain defeat- in each of them he single-handedly turned the games around by crafting masterpieces and also by marshalling and protecting his weaker teammates.

277: Veteran West Indian commentator Tony Cozier chose his universally acclaimed 277 at Sydney where Lara entered the match with his side at 31 for 2 after Australia had compiled 508 for 9 and after the West Indies had been crushed in the previous Test at Melbourne. West Indies had lost 8 out of the previous 11 times at Sydney with its only victory having been in 1930! In the end Lara crafted what West Indian great Rohan Kanhai called “one of the greatest innings I have ever seen. Front foot, back foot, timing, placement, against spin bowlers and fast bowlers alike. He was marvelous.”

Lara rattled long at 72.4 runs per 100 balls with 35 runs an hour. His 38 boundaries in every direction represented 54% of his score. On his second day, while he added 154 and stroked 23 fours, his three partners managed 74 runs and five fours between them. It was his first Test century in his 5th Test. In the end only a run-out due to Carl Hooper could stop him.

180: Fazeer Mohammed pulled out of the archives a 1994 Red Stripe Cup fixture between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica at the Oval. To it Faz says: “He has compiled much larger scores in front of thousands of spectators on the world stage, but his virtuoso performance in front of a couple of diehards will live long in the memory of those who had the privilege of seeing it.

“Replying to Jamaica’s first innings total of 206, Lara came to the crease with the score at 38 for 2 on the first evening. When he was last out after lunch on the second day he had scored a staggering 180 in 269 minutes off 267 balls with 24 fours and two sixes. While he was at the crease just 19 runs came off the bat of his eight partners as Trinidad and Tobago were eventually dismissed for 237. Lara added 105 for the eighth wicket with Rajindra Dhanraj in which the leg spinners contribution was 11.No other batsman got beyond 4 while the captain was at the crease, yet his marshalling of the strike was so incredibly efficient that the runs continued to flow feely off his flashing blade…”

375: Writer BC Pires chose his record breaking 375 in Antigua and put it into context calling it “the single most unifying moment in cricket history, we forget the rush of exhilaration around the planet in the moment he achieved it. We even forget that multi-coloured kaleidoscopic wheel illustrating the spectacular strokes he played all around the ground...” Pires says of it “the act was all the more one of will, it was always more mental than monumental… The real magnificence of Lara’s 375 is accessible only when we remember the will to conquer itself that drew us in irresistibly... The 375 remains the cricket equivalent of the assassination of JFK except it is a glorious rather than a tragic moment we all claim.”

221: Charlie Austin the Sri Lankan editor of Wisden chose Lara’s 221 versus Sri Lanka in Colombo where he dominated Muralitharan acclaimed as the world’s greatest spin bowler whom no batsman had figured out. “It was a classic contest: a great bowler versus a great batsman. And it all came to a head during the third and final Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in December 2001 where Lara scored 221 out of West Indies’ first innings total of 390 and then waltzed to 130 in the second innings just for good measure.

Lara did not merely survive. He sang a song of supremacy. While others soft-stepped nervously, Lara mastered Muralitharan… While his team-mates floundered Lara decoded every variation in Muralithran’s wide repertoire. Off-break, arm-ball, drifter, top-spinner- Lara picked them all from the wrist.

It was all in vain, but he did everything in his power to avoid West Indies’ 21st defeat in their 25th Test overseas. He monopolized the strike, pinching singles so that his team-mates- top order and tail both- were not exposed… At the other end it was no cruise either, Chaminda Vaas was in the best form of his life, swinging and swerving to 14 wickets in the match. Both came away frustrated, particularly Muralitharan who for the first time in his career really had no answers.” In that comeback series Lara scored 688 runs at an average of 114.66!

213: Vaneisha Baksh chose Lara’s 213 versus Australia in Kingston. She sums up as follows: “What was Brian Lara carrying on March 14, 1999 to the foreboding Sabina pitch that had bid his men a dread good night at 37 for 4 the evening before?

Lara was captain of a team that had just lost six Tests straight, in the previous one sinking to an all-time low of 51 all out! He was a captain on a two-Test probation. He was in Jamaica, where the crowd was openly hostile to him because he had replaced their countryman Courtney Walsh as captain. He was facing Australia, fighting for the beloved Sir Frank Worrel Trophy, no mere trinket in the West Indian psyche…. though Australia had only put up 256 despite a hundred by Steve Waugh, commentators were cynically wondering if West Indies could avoid the follow-on.
It wasn’t just cricket on his shoulders as he strode out to the crease the next morning. It was the weight of the West Indies.

“As the day unfolded his shoulders broadened slowly and carefully at first (his first 50 came in 140 balls) the warrior in him advanced and was recognized. Lara in full cry is always a breathtaking spectacle, and the battle that day was nothing short of epic… But his early morning guard gave way to full dominance over Shane Warne and Stuart Mc Gill after lunch. When he hit Warne to long-on for six to bring up his 60, the crowd went wild, having long forgotten that this was the man who’d ousted their darling Walsh as captain.” Vaneisha recalls the shot that brought Brian to his century where the crowd flooded the pitch in appreciation and joy. Walsh- the big man that he was- came on the pitch to embrace him.

She picks up, “The emotional moments were many- back-to-back sixes against MacGill, four consecutive fours against Greg Blewett- but for me, the most inspiring came after he fell to a wicked Glenn McGrath snorter that took him on the side of the head. It was numbing to all, but he rose. He rose from the blow and drove McGrath to cover for a four that resonated with the ring of steel. For that grandeur of spirit alone the 213 remains one of my privileged Lara memories, evoking as it did memories of a grander time.”

153*: Peter Roebuck former Somerset captain chose the Kensington Test match in Bridgetown Barbados off the same series- widely regarded as the greatest Test match of all time: “Brian Lara’s unbeaten 153 against the Australians in Bridgetown is widely and justifiably regarded as the greatest chasing Test cricket innings cricket has known. Throughout this epic performance Lara knew that he could not make a single mistake. Throughout, the Australians fought for his wicket like mongrels over a bone but Lara refused to oblige. Instead he constructed a masterpiece of batting that turned impending defeat into sudden and unexpected victory. The innings is illuminated by its context- before the series began Lara had been as close to disgrace as any cricketer can be…

Australia dominated the opening three days of the Third Test. Steve Waugh set the tone with a rugged 199 as Australia scored 490. West Indies subsided to 98 for 6 before the fightback began with a partnership of 153 between Sherwin Campbell and Ridley Jacobs. Next day West Indies continued their resurgence by bowling the Australians out for 146 leaving a target of 306 for victory. When three early wickets fell that fourth evening it seemed the cause was lost. Overnight Lara was 2 not out.”

(Editor’s note: It is instructive that grounds-men on day 5 speak of waking up to the sight of a lonely figure at daybreak in the middle- going through motions of stroke after stroke, defensive shot after defensive shot, shield after shield… It was Lara. Shadow-boxing. Rehearsing the innings he was about to play.)

“West Indies’ position continued to deteriorate on Day Five till they were 105 for five. Now Lara made his move, slipping through the gears, pressing hard on the accelerator, taking the corners as fast as he dared and hoping that his colleagues could survive in his slipstream. Jimmy Adams obliged defending obdurately as the score mounted. Meanwhile the ground was filling as news spread that West Indies were putting up a fight and that Lara was still batting.

Gradually the tension mounted and the noise rose as spectators lived and died with every ball. West Indies suffered further setbacks and Curtly Ambrose arrived at the crease with 60 runs needed and only two wickets left. Ambrose rose to the occasion defending doggedly for 82 minutes. Meanwhile Lara drove and swept and pulled and calculated, a vibrant figure, a flashing blade and a ticking brain…

“Ambrose fell and Courtney Walsh appeared, a lanky improbable figure and not at all a reassuring sight for thousands of supporters, let alone an exhausted captain needing a further seven runs for victory- so near and so very far away! Somehow Walsh kept out a searing in-swinging Yorker, the ball of the series, and then the Australians must have suspected the game was up. A wide followed and a no-ball as the bowlers strained mind and muscle. Walsh endured.

(Editor’s note again: It is here that one sportswriter reports one of the most poignant moments in West Indian sports history: In a box in the stands were numerous past West Indian cricketing greats and journalists. After Walsh passed the strike to Lara with the tension now razor sharp the assembly kept hearing a low rumbling sound- it was coming from the speaker for the stump mike out in the middle. Soon many of the band were straining to hear inside the low hum to get an idea of what was going on out in the battlefield. Slowly they were able to make it out. It was Walsh’s voice, and he was saying under his breath as Lara took strike, “Come on captain. You can do it... You can do it.” Big men broke into tears.)

Lara took strike and smashed the winning runs through cover. Only in this moment of victory did he show any emotion, not that he had much choice as team mates hugged him. As Wisden put it, he had “guided his team to victory as though leading the infirm through a maze.”

BACK ON THE THRONE- LARA 400: The final of the seven great innings (thus far) is the staggering 400 not out. Whilst the edifice of West Indian cricket was crumbling on the pitch to a 3 nil defeat by England and the prospect of a home-series whitewash the region was belatedly making moves to build institutions that could ensure West Indies cricket’s future survival. “In Barbados, the 50th anniversary of Sir Garry Sobers' Test debut was celebrated during the third Test. A bust of Malcolm Marshall was unveiled at his old school. England played at the ‘Three Ws Oval’. In Antigua, the Sir Vivian Richards Foundation was launched. An exhibition of memorabilia was opened at the St. John's museum.” Defeat from lack of institutions of Legacy was finally convincing West Indians to build the necessary monuments and schools. Meanwhile the living embodiment of the institution of West Indies cricket was erecting another monument on the field of play.

Tony Cozier describes it thusly, “England, an old enemy for reasons beyond cricket alone, had heaped humiliation on Lara and his team. The embarrassment had been compounded by the cheers and the taunts of the England supporters, who filled as much as three-quarters of the stands at Kensington Oval, once the impenetrable fortress of West Indies cricket where the collapse to 94 all out opened the way to the victory that retained the Wisden Trophy for England. So, as Lara took guard, England were on the verge of the unthinkable, the first clean sweep of a series in the Caribbean by any visiting team. For the first time in his career, he had been dismissed without scoring in two successive innings.”

When he reached his first century not even the shadow of a smile crossed Lara’s countenance: rather it was a grim look that said, “Take that.” But there was more to come. The night before when asked about the possibility of retaking the record and possible accolades Lara simply said, “I think the accolades will all fall into place at the right time.” The next day Lara went about the business as if it were a right. And then after a six to equal the record Lara swept the next ball to the fine leg boundary of Gareth Batty and surpassed Mathew Hayden’s mark of 380- Who in their right mind goes to equal a world record with a six?! And then goes to pass it next ball with a swept four?! Genius- that’s who. Now who’s your daddy?

Tony Cozier described it as, “Impossible to comprehend… From all appearances once entrenched on such a flawless pitch there was no limit to what he could score… Lara made an exceptional record seem routine. He was so composed, so utterly in command, so invincible that he surely could have carried on to 500 and, for that matter, 600 if he was so minded.” Wayne Brown saw this, “Lara, more alone at the last than his great forebears ever were, since there was nothing left to play for anymore; but Lara nonetheless- or rather, Lara therefore- in full cry, bloodying the bowlers, making them wish they were dead, Lara blazing like a sun, one last time, over the ruins of West Indian cricket and the world!”

As he did five years ago, Lara once more transformed a situation of deep personal, and team, crisis into one of critical revival and triumph. The sheer statistical weight of his 13 flawless hours and the unimaginable 400 runs speak for themselves. The bland facts and figures- and they are inevitably copious- cannot reveal the immense pressure that had to be borne to fashion them. Lara 400- had to negotiate 582 deliveries, 267 duck balls, 139 singles, 24 twos, four threes, 43 boundaries, one five and four 6s. He had to bat for almost 13 hours against a pace attack which had permitted him only 100 runs from 6 innings.

One writer wrote, “This innings will be recorded as the greatest individual testimony of the indomitable will, resolve and genius of the human spirit (and its capacity to resist). A home series whitewash loomed. It was the day of the long knives. Even the Barmy Army was in awe.” Wisden Cricinfo entolled, “They came to bury Lara, but not for the first time, they were compelled to praise him….” Another writes, “Lara is the last emperor of Caribbean cricket. Until the revolution comes and the West Indies Cricket Board wises up to the need for root-and-branch reform there can be no pretenders to his throne.”

David Rudder says, “Brian is at the trailing edge of the last generation to take these things seriously (winning and losing) and understand the symbolism. I am not sure if all his players would see the thing in the same way.”

Humbly Lara said, “I don’t think it’s much to rant and rave about. It’s a really nice batting track and I (would have) preferred to have myself scoring runs in the first three tests… I rate my innings mainly on the worth of it… The 153 against Australia in Barbados stands out. At age 34 I’m doing a lot of work with Ronald Rogers (trainer) and Andrew (physio). I must commend them for the sort of effort they’re getting out of me at age 34.”

On route to the record the West Indies racked up the highest total ever scored against England- surpassing Australia’s 729-6 declared at Lord’s in 1930. Trinidad’s Rugby Football Union said, “Lara’s example of resolute self-belief, focus, courage and determination serves as a compelling lesson.” Afterwards he received a call from golf champion Ernie Els and the keys to Antigua where he was made an honorary citizen- in tribute to lightning striking twice in the same ground. He is now the only man ever to have scored a century, 200, 300, 400 and 500 runs in first class cricket and the solitary member of the 400 and 500 club!

A sign on the grounds of the 400 give a window into the significance of the innings: “OUR WOUNDS ARE HEALED,” it read. Lara knew that only a historic humiliation of England, only a superhuman monument could rescue the series and region from total despair and a shame that will take long to erase. He saved his team from the ignominy of a series whitewash at home from their past colonial masters. Only time will tell whether the impact is of more lasting significance but, for the time being, West Indians are relishing the reflected glory of the greatest batting achievement in Test cricket history.

In the worst sour-grapes tradition Australian captain Ricky Ponting scolded Lara for keeping the West Indies innings going for so long in order to break the world record stating that he threw away the chance of a West Indies win. “That was not the Australian way,” pontificated Ponting. Nevertheless, Ponting conceded that Hayden's 380 at Perth did involve an exception to the ‘team rule’. Wayne Brown asks, “What, apart from a jealous rage, could have left the Australian captain so heedless of what he was saying?” Said Ponting "It was a very rare thing for Matty to be able to bat for as long as he did, he was given the opportunity to go on and break Brian's record and he did that. He was going to be given another half an hour, or 20 minutes, to try to get to 400 but unfortunately he got out." But Ricky-o that’s the whole point isn’t it? “He got out!” In other words, “He was given the chance- But couldn’t do it.” In much the same way- given your logic- you could say that each time Walsh came to the crease he could have scored 500 “but he got out!” Hayden ‘got out’, Lara did not. Lara is the better man. Crown him.


That 400* gives Lara 775 in his two highest innings. Bradman played in a time of timeless Tests, and his two highest come to 638. Lara has tamed the greatest bowling threats of all time. No one has ever done that besides him. Lara has a 277 in Australia- the highest score by a visiting player since 1904. Last year he scored 1,344 runs with five centuries, the eleventh best year in Test history. His 798 runs in the 1994 series against England is the ninth best ever in a five Test series; only one other place is held by an active player- also Lara, in England in 1995. The record in a three Test series is also his 688 against the greatest bowler of all time, remember that?

Lara is a genius, he’s special, and he deserves mention among the true, utterly undeniable legends of the game and of sports. What he has done in modern cricket, is make it great again. If 300 is the standard then Lara is going to score 400. He’s unbelievable. And now once more he takes up the heavy mantle of Prince and Captain and marches out into the middle to do Battle on behalf of all of us.