Brian Lara
Full name Brian Charles Lara
Born May 2, 1969, Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad
Current age 37 years
Major teams West Indies, ICC World XI, Northern Transvaal, Trinidad & Tobago, Warwickshire
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak googly
Brian Lara is one of the best players in the West Indies cricket team. In the span of two months in 1994, Lara’s 375 and 501 not only broke world records for the highest Test and first-class scores, but sudden fame turned him into a confused and contradictory figure. In 1998-99 he single-handedly defied the Australian tourists with a sequence of 213, 8, 153 not out and 100. Brian Lara returned to his best in Sri Lanka in 2001-02, with 221 and 130 in one Test and 688 runs – a record 42% of West Indies’ output – in the series, and reclaimed the captaincy the following year. He led them to defeat for a second time in South Africa, and then lost to England in the Caribbean, too. Lara performed wonderfully in Antigua in the home series with an unbeaten 400 in the final Test against England. In doing so, he became the first man to reclaim the world Test batting record, a feat that ensured he would stand alongside Shane Warne as the most charismatic cricketer of the modern era. It was under Shivnarine Chanderpaul that Lara had his next big moment, in Adelaide in November 2005, when he went past Allan Border’s tally of 11174 runs to become Test cricket’s most prolific scorer. He was once more reinstated as the West Indies captain in April 2006.
