The new West Indies Skipper Brian Charles Lara has turned 37 years old today. This West Indian Legend who is the present leading run scorer in Test Match Cricket was born in a small village called Cantaro which is a part of the Santa Cruz Valley that belongs to Trinidad and Tobago. Lara was the 10th one among the 11 children of Bunty Lara and Pearl Lara, both of whom had passed away a few years back.
The Trinidadian made his First Class Debut way back in 1987/88 against Leeward Islands, where he could just manage just 14 and 22. However the then 19-year-old made a fantastic 92 against a formidable Barbados bowling attack which had the likes of ‘Big Bird’ Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall. Soon Lara got the opportunity to play a few big games against the touring Pakistan and Indian team in the 87/88 and the 88/89 seasons. In one particular match, playing for the West Indies U23 side, Lara smashed 182 runs against the touring Indian team that was led by Krish Srikkanth. That innings forced him into the West Indies Test Squad to face India in his home country Trinidad, Brian couldn’t make it to the playing eleven and the talented youngster had to play 10 more first class games before representing the West Indies at the highest level. And the left hander made his debut in the 3rd Test Match against Pakistan at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore in the 1990/91 season.
Brian Lara always has this appetite of scoring big big hundreds and this habit of his had started with a magnificent 277 in just his 5th Test of his career, this amazing knock had come against the Australians at Sydney. It has been no looking back at all for BC Lara, who went onto score the highest individual score in first class cricket with a 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994, then eclipsing the highest individual score in Test Cricket by scoring 375* against England in the same year and then regaining the same highest individual score record which was rewritten by Matt Hayden’s 380 by scoring the first ever Quadruple Century ever in Test Cricket. Lara’s monumental 400 not out against England in 2004 at Antigua.
The Prince has exactly a combined total of 50 hundreds in both the forms of Cricket at the International Level. One milestone which Lara has lagged behind is crossing the 10000 runs in ODI Cricket. He has about 600 more runs to get there. Lara has battled for the West Indies since a longtime and most of the time, he got little support from his team mates and the Prince of Trinidad has seen the gradual decline of the West Indian Cricket in his illustrious career. The Prince has come out of One Day hibernation and is now back playing One Day Cricket for the West Indies. He is 37 now and is definitely counting down his days in any form of the game and he might just play that first ever World Cup in the Caribbean and then bow out and put his feet up. World Cricket would be now hoping to see a player who can replace this ‘God sent player’. Let’s hope that player emerges soon and gives the same kind of entertainment that Brian Charles Lara has been giving since the last 15 years!