Brian Lara

Brian Lara

Source: [1], 21 September 2006

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 of all time, 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 is a batsman of unmitigated genius, but as well 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 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 Christopher Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Dwayne Bravo. In fact, Lara declined selection in a stand of solidarity, when these players were dropped because of their sponsorship deals. 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

Brian Lara's career performance graph.

• 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. [2]. 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. [3]
• 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 10,000 (with Tendulkar) and 11,000 Test runs, in terms of number of innings. [4]
• He has (as of July 2006) scored 32 centuries (the most for a West Indian and 3rd for all Test cricket [5]), of which eight are double centuries (surpassed only by Bradman [6]) and two triple-centuries (matched only by Bradman [7]). 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 [8], 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 [9].
• 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 [10].
• A devastating batsman when in form, Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs (28) in a single over in Test cricket [11].
• 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 [12].
• 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 [13].
• 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 [14]. 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.
• Brian Lara 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.

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:

• The beginning
  The beginning
• First drop
  First drop
• Second drop
  Second drop
• The rise
  The rise

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

Test Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the test centuries scored by Brian Lara

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test Centuries of Brian Lara
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	277	5	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	1993
[2]	167	13	England	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	1993
[3]	375	16	England	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	1994
[4]	147	21	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	1995
[5]	145	29	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	1995
[6]	152	30	England	Nottingham, England	Trent Bridge	1995
[7]	179	31	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	1995
[8]	132	38	Australia	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A. Ground	1997
[9]	103	42	India	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	1997
[10]	115	45	Sri Lanka	Kingstown, Saint Vincent	Arnos Vale Ground	1997
[11]	217	61	Australia	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	1999
[12]	153*	62	Australia	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	1999
[13]	100	63	Australia	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	1999
[14]	112	68	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	2000
[15]	182	73	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	2000
[16]	178	81	Sri Lanka	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle Stadium	2001
[17]	221	83	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2001
[18]	130	83	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2001
[19]	110	91	Australia	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	2003
[20]	122	92	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queen’s Park Oval	2003
[21]	209	95	Sri Lanka	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	2003
[22]	191	98	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queen’s Sport Club	2003
[23]	202	99	South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa	New Wanderers Stadium	2003
[24]	115	101	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands	2004
[25]	400*	106	England	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	2004
[26]	120	108	Bangladesh	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2004
[27]	196	113	South Africa	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queen’s Park Oval	2005
[28]	176	114	South Africa	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2005
[29]	130	116	Pakistan	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2005
[30]	153	117	Pakistan	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	2005
[31]	226	121	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	2005
[32]	120	126	India	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	2006

One Day International Centuries

ODI Centuries of Brian Lara
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	128	41	Pakistan	Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	1993
[2]	111*	42	South Africa	Bloemfontein, South Africa	Springbok Park	1993
[3]	114	45	Pakistan	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	1993
[4]	153	54	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	1993
[5]	139	83	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queen’s Park Oval	1995
[6]	169	90	Sri Lanka	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	1995
[7]	111	96	South Africa	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	1996
[8]	146*	100	New Zealand	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queen’s Park Oval	1996
[9]	104	102	New Zealand	Kingstown, Saint Vincent	Arnos Vale Ground	1996
[10]	102	108	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	1997
[11]	103*	109	Pakistan	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Ground	1997
[12]	110	125	England	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	1998
[13]	117	157	Bangladesh	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Bangabandhu National Stadium	1999
[14]	116*	176	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	2001
[15]	111	202	Kenya	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2002
[16]	116	203	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands	2003
[17]	116	217	Sri Lanka	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2003
[18]	113	219	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	2003
[19]	156	249	Pakistan	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	2005

Man of the Match Awards

Test Cricket

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	277	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[2]	167	England	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	West Indies won by an innings and 44 runs	1993
[3]	375	England	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[4]	179	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	Match Drawn	1995
[5]	104	India	St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1997
[6]	213	Australia	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1999
[7]	8/153*	Australia	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	West Indies won by 1 wicket	1999
[8]	221/130	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sport Club Ground	won by 10 wickets	2001
[9]	209	Sri Lanka	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	Match Drawn	2003
[10]	191/1	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	West Indies won by 128 runs	2003
[11]	400*	England	St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	2004
[12]	226/17	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	won by 7 wickets	2005

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	54	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 24 runs	1991
[2]	69	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 12 runs	1992
[3]	88	Pakistan	Melbourne, Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[4]	72	Zimbabwe	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 75 runs	1992
[5]	86	South Africa	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[6]	128	Pakistan	Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	West Indies won by 124 runs	1993
[7]	111*	South Africa	Bloemfontein, South Africa	Springbok Park	West Indies won by 9 wickets	1993
[8]	114	Pakistan	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1993
[9]	95*	Pakistan	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1993
[10]	153	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 6 wickets	1993
[11]	82	Sri Lanka	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1993
[12]	55*	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	West Indies won by 25 runs	1995
[13]	72	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	West Indies won by 41 runs	1995
[14]	139	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 133 runs	1995
[15]	169	Sri Lanka	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C. A. Stadium	West Indies won by 4 runs	1995
[16]	111	South Africa	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 19 runs	1996
[17]	146*	New Zealand	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1996
[18]	103*	Pakistan	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1997
[19]	90	Australia	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1997
[20]	88	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 43 runs	1997
[21]	51	England	Kingstown, Saint Vincent	Arnos Vale Ground	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1998
[22]	60	India	Singapore	Kallang Ground	West Indies won by 42 runs	1999
[23]	117	Bangladesh	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Bangabandhu National Stadium	West Indies won by 109 runs	1999
[24]	116*	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	won by 28 runs	2001
[25]	83*	Zimbabwe	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 44 runs	2001
[26]	59*	New Zealand	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	West Indies won by 7 wickets	2002
[27]	103*	Kenya	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	West Indies won by 29 runs	2002
[28]	116	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands	West Indies won by 3 runs	2003
[29]	80	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 39 runs	2003
[30]	156	Pakistan	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	West Indies won by 58 runs	2005

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.

See also

• Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
• Brian Lara International Cricket 2007
• Brian Lara Cricket

External links

• Cricinfo Profile
• Brain Lara's Test Statistics (by HowSTAT!)
• Brain Lara's One Day International Statistics (by HowSTAT!)
• Brian Lara Cricket Online - Lara's Official Game
• A Special Edition Bat to Commemorate Brian Lara's World Record Innings