Lara, Prince of the Caribbean..

[couragous cloke]

Brian Lara duly completed his inevitable climb atop the all-time West Indies Test run-scoring mountain Thursday, blasting a boundary-studded 191 to surpass Viv Richards' record. It was an achievement expected around the region ever since the Trinidadian champion batsman was in short pants.

Resuming from an overnight score of 77, Lara wasted no time in getting to his 22nd Test century before obliterating the record in the 11th over of the day's play to move to seventh place on the all-time list.

He picked up the record-breaking 8,541st Test run in the 11th over of the day's play, stroking a flighted delivery from left-arm spinner Ray Price majestically to the cover boundary. Only Steve Waugh (10,660) and Sachin Tendulkar (8,882) are ahead of Lara among active players.

Throughout the day, Lara was the only attraction. Runs came with ease as he picked the gaps with trademark accuracy. The bulk of his runs came from drives through the arc between wide mid-on and mid-off, including four big sixes and 23 boundaries.

Such was Lara's dominance that Ramnaresh Sarwan's attractive 65 was a mere afterthought. The West Indies skipper was finally dismissed just nine runs short of his sixth double century -- a innings that spanned 271 minutes and 203 balls.

It was an anti-climax afterwards. The West Indies tail, hurt by an umpiring error that sent Shiv Chanderpaul packing for just 15, did not wag sufficiently and the West Indies slipped to 481 all out.

Coming into the second day at 282 for three, the West Indies would have been looking at a first innings score in the 550 range but it was not to be. And the bowlers didn't look like they were capable of defending it anyway.

In keeping with the twists-and-turns theme of these touring West Indians, the bowlers let the obvious advantage slip away after a spectacular start.

Zimbabwe's opener Vusi Sibanda was caught-and-bowled by the impressive Fidel Edwards with the score on 5. Merv Dillon, strangely included for this match at the expense of Vasbert Drakes, then got into the action and picked up the wicket of Trevor Gripper, played on.

Edwards then made it 31-3 with the wicket of Stuart Carlisle but it was all Zimbabwe after that.

Craig Wishart and Mark Vermeulen made batting look easy as Lara made nonstop -- and sometimes weird -- bowling changes throughout. The bowlers never got a chance to settle as Lara switched from bowler to bowler, much to the bemusement of everyone involved.

His strange tactics included giving the brand new cherry to slow-medium bowler Wavell Hinds. In all, he made 18 bowling changes as Wishart and Vermeulen flourished. Wishart was especially brutal, cutting and driving well on his way to an unbeaten 86 (13 fours, one six).

At the close, Zimbabwe had recovered to 173 for three (308 runs behind with seven wickets in hand).



---- NOW THATS A PLAYER ----

[piedys]

CC,
All jolly good that he passed the Viv the master-blasters run tally for W.I. BUT, how many test/innings have they played each?

Is it like saying SR Waugh has passed Chappell and Bradman etc. as Australian leading run getter, although it took what, 3 times as many tests?

Just looking for a bit of perspective here.

Dyso

[Donny]

Dyso,

It has taken Lara 23 Tests and 10 innings less than Viv played to pass his aggregate.

Lara: 98 Tests. 8626 runs Ave. 51.65 - 22 centuries and 41 fifties.

Richards: 121 Tests. 8540 runs Ave. 50.23 - 24 centuries and 45 fifties

[piedys]

Okay then, plaudits to Lara.

But i still reckon Viv Richards scored his runs against more hostile bowling attacks then whats been around the last 10 years or so.

Dyso

[Donny]

Hey, Anthony, did Charlie get any runs against the Zimbos in the first ODI ?

[couragous cloke]

LOL that backfired didnt it piedys!! Ha Ha! Yes Donny, the champion smashed 113 off 82 balls!

[commonwombat]

Comparing Lara and Viv is dangerous nigh futile territory. Playing the stats game is not always getting the full story. No of games and innings is fine but let's all acknowledge the amounts of intl cricket being played in the last decade and esp 5-6 years far exceeds the amounts played during Viv's career (@early-mid 70s-@1990).

I'm not going to take sides as in my opinion they are/were both exceptional batsmen and more importantly they are totally different styles of player, albeit both flamboyant and highly destructive.

[couragous cloke]

yes.... HIGHLY!

[piedys]

[HAL]

Thanks for the newsflash.

[Donny]

Hey, CC, how many Charlie topics do you want ??

----------------------------------
New Lara, Old Magic

Monday, November 24 @ 14:02:24 EST

by BC PIRES

Brian Lara is the cricket equivalent of Manhattan, Manchester United or marzipan: it just isn't possible to be indifferent about him. Nor does he let you ignore him for long. Barely one calendar month after Matthew Hayden took his place as the scorer of the highest innings in Test cricket, Lara ensured his number of entries in the record books would remain the same by eclipsing Sir Viv Richards as West Indies' leading overall scorer, almost incidentally racking up 1,000 runs in a calendar year for the third time.

And, once more, as we did in 1999 when he bounced back from 'The 51', West Indies' lowest Test score, to beat Australia virtually by himself in the next two Tests, or as we did originally back in 1994 when he scored the 375 and the 501 (the highest first-class score), those of us who don't hate him are ready to love him all over. What will Lara do next? In our hearts we all know the answer: anything he wants.

You get the feeling that, if circumstances allow it before Lara's career ends in the next four or five or (surely!) six years, not just Hayden's record but the 501 might be in jeopardy.

Lara, at 34, cannot have the physical ability he had at 25. Though his eyesight is a long way from gone, it may be equidistant from its peak, when he entertained himself between deliveries by looking for pretty girls in the crowd. His body takes longer to recover from injury and the likelihood of it increases year on year. It would now fatigue him far more to bat for three days than would have been the case in 1994.

Yet he seems to have gained mentally much more than he has lost physically in the past nine years. The cream of West Indian sportswriters in the press box watching him make his maiden century at Trinidad's Queen's Park Oval, his home ground, against Australia in April shook their heads in disbelief and nodded them in unanimous agreement, with even his detractors admitting grudgingly that he is batting as well as ever. The ones who liked him told the truth: he's batting better.

There's something about Lara. Few of us are good enough at anything to be given a second chance by virtue of sheer talent after having screwed up monumentally. The ones who capitalise on second chances, though, do it by assertion of will and self. Muhammad Ali comes out of an exile imposed by the authorities to regain the world championship; Mike Tyson does it to bite off Evander Holyfield's ear. The old Brian Lara would have become this year's Diego Maradona.

The old Brian Lara would have squandered any amount of chances he was given because he would not have recognised them as such; he would have seen them as entitlements, his in perpetuity. The new Brian knows the end will come and wants to carry his bat. (To be fair to him, the 'old' Lara we speak of was not the actual old Lara, who was the young Lara, the boy from rural Trinidad. Indeed, that personality is probably the same as the 'new' Lara of today, just younger. The 'old' Lara was an interim personality, his best attempt to go with the flow of the whitewater of celebrity into which he was tossed.)

Even in Guyana, where Carl Hooper still remains unofficially West Indies captain, no one needs to be persuaded that Lara has the will to do anything he wishes with his talent. As long as West Indies are not a great team, there will be West Indians who will make Lara a scapegoat, precisely because of his will and talent. As soon as the team is strong again, however, resentment of Lara will retreat to the same little pockets the mediocre always occupy to glower at excellence. And Lara is likely to succeed.

The problems West Indies cricket face are still as daunting as Jamaica's Blue Mountains; but they are capable of being surmounted. There are seven million people in the cricket-playing Caribbean; the chances of finding four who can send down 10 overs of genuine pace are good, even with basketball now the ghetto game of choice.

The team is young and almost embarrassingly green, but when you score 417 runs in the last innings to beat Australia and your last pair bat out a dozen overs to force a draw against Zimbabwe in your next series, you gain experience fairly quickly. Lara and the West Indies Cricket Board are no longer modelling with concrete, but clay. And Lara sees his job now as moulding that clay, not standing on a pedestal, scowling at the rabble below.

For all the disdainful looks he gave us at the nadir of his career, when he declared cricket was ruining his life, very many of us still find Lara charming. It is amazing how quickly we rush to think well of him once more, amazing, too, how anything he does is somehow richer than if repeated or even bettered by someone else. Compare the international fanfare when he set his world record to the stark absence of headlines when Hayden broke it. Lara was the subject of two leader articles in The Guardian; Hayden's word count in the British press is dwarfed by Lara's 8,626 runs.

The reason the world made a fuss over Lara, and is still willing to, it seems to me, is because we know in our hearts how good he is. He is in touch with something purely good. The religious call it God; the secular know it as Art; but it resides in all of us and we see it plainly in our best. Even if he were not batting so well, we would want him to; because Brian Lara's redemption saves the best in all of us and we all glory in it; except, perhaps, England for a couple of months next year.
_________________

commonwombat replied:

A bit over the top, just like some of the Steve Waugh eulogies going round at the moment.

Having said that, there's no disputing the man is blessed with talent way ahead of most mere mortals. He is someone you'll always pay to watch. IMHO, the most enjoyable batsman to watch since Gower, and even more destructive.

Hope my comment isn't offensive, CC !!!
_________________
he's an animal, what can u expect!!!

couragous cloke

offencive? pffft.... heck i agree with ya mate. There's still PLENTY of Lara to come.
_________________
got yourself a gun...

[Donny]

The wombat says, "A bit over the top, just like some of the Steve Waugh eulogies going round at the moment"

Care to elaborate, wombat ?

I would've thought Waugh is one cricketer who's achievments anyone (even you ) would find hard to exaggerate.

[commonwombat]

The eulogies part refers to some of the tribute and comments passed in the media in the past few days, perhaps more that the eulogies from fellow players.

Blather about our greatest ever batsman, greatest captain and the like is just that; blather, hyperbole and more blather!! Undoubtedly a great batsman AND a great captain but puhleeze folks how can they say greatest ever.

Different eras, quality of opposition and more important amount and volume of matches; all make for a pretty muddy and generally pointless exercise.

His place in cricket's pantheon is without question; just leave it at that.

(Donny, I have not made any personal observation on his relative merits and would prefer not to unless asked.)

[couragous cloke]

brian Lara and Viv richards? from what ive seen Viv was a freak of a batsmen... Lara Is the best West Indian batsmen ive eva seen, i suppose there's not much after him anyway. and no donny! i want more lara topics!