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Brian Charles Lara (born 2 May 1969) (nicknamed "The Prince of Port-of-Spain", "The Prince of Trinidad" or simply "The Prince") is a retired West Indies cricketer. He has topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions where he holds the record for highest individual innings. He also holds the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with a total of 501* for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, as well as the highest individual score in a test innings with 400 not out. Lara played his international career with the West Indies cricket team. Lara was the record holder for the highest number of runs ever scored by a batsman in test cricket until he was surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar on 17 October, 2008. He is regarded as one of the finest batsmen ever to have played the game.
[edit] Early lifeLara's father Rueben and one of his older sisters Agnes Cyrus enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in correct batting technique. 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 where he started his development as a promising young player under cricket coach Mr. Harry Ramdas. Aged 14, he amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league, with an average of 126.16 per innings, which earned him selection for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under 19 youth tournament and that same year, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 cricket. Lara moved in with his future fellow Trinidadian cricketer Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's father Joey Carew worked with him on his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at Angostura Ltd. in the marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but Lara believed that cricket was his path to success, saying that he wanted to emulate his idols Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks. [edit] Early cricket career1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when in the West Indies Youth Championships he scored 498 runs beating the record of 480 by Carl Hooper set the previous year.[1] He captained the Trinidad and Tobago team at this tournament whom eventually won the tournament due to a match winning 116 from Lara. In January 1988, Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Leeward Islands. In his second first-class match he made 92 against a Barbados attack containing Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall, two greats of West Indies teams. Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup where the West Indies reached the semi-finals. Later that year, his innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the touring Indian team elevated his reputation even further. His first selection for the full West Indies team followed in due course, but unfortunately coincided with the death of his father and Lara withdrew from the team. In 1989, he captained a West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145. In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest ever captain, leading them that season to victory in the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his belated Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 and 5. He had made his ODI debut a month earlier against Pakistan, scoring 11. In the 1992 World Cup Lara did well averaging 47.57 with a highest score of 88 retired hurt. In January 1993, Lara scored 277 versus Australia in Sydney, this was his maiden Test century in his fifth Test, this innings was the turning point of the series as West Indies won the final two Tests to win the series 2-1.Lara went on to name his daughter Sydney after scoring 277 at SCG. He was greatly influenced by Trinidadian Lester Armogan. Lara was devastated with "Uncle Les's" death, but has been able to rebound. He knows "Uncle Les" is watching.[2] [edit] CareerLara 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, Lara 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 19th 2008 whilst playing against Australia at Mohali in the 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008. Hence, he 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] along with Sachin Tendulkar one of only two players 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.[6] A few days later he announced that he would in fact be retiring from all international cricket after the tournament.[7] 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.[8] [edit] Retirement
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.[9] He was run out by Kevin Pietersen after a bad mixup with Marlon Samuels for 18, as England went on to win the match by one wicket.[10] 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.[11] 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. [edit] ControversiesOn 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.[12] [edit] Off the fieldBrian Lara has established the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation, which is a charitable organisation in memory of his parents that aims to address health and social care issues. He is an Ambassador for Sport of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and travels on a diplomatic passport to promote his country throughout the world.[13] Brian Lara received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield on Wednesday 10 January 2007. The ceremony took place at the Trinidad Hilton, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.[13] On 7 September 2008 he took part in Soccer Aid 2008, playing for the Rest of the World vs a team of England celebrites and ex pros [edit] Personal life
Lara has dated British supermodel Lindsey Ward. Lara is the father of a girl called Sydney whom he fathered with Trinidadian journalist and model Leasel Rovedas. Sydney is so named as a tribute to one of Lara's favourite grounds, the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Lara scored his first Test century- the highly acclaimed 277 in the 1992-93 season. His father died in 1989 of a heart attack and his mother died in 2002 of cancer. Lara has close ties with Trinidadian business mogul Wayne Armogan, who is the son of late Trinidadian Lester Armogan[14] [edit] Statistics[edit] Highlights
[edit] Test CenturiesThe following tables illustrate a summary of the Test and ODI centuries scored by Brian Lara.
[edit] One-Day International Centuries
[edit] Man of the Match Awards[edit] Test Cricket
[edit] One-Day International Cricket
[edit] See also[edit] Notes and references
[edit] External links
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