Brian Lara
Brian Charles Lara (born May 2, 1969 in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is an outstanding West Indian cricketer.
He is a talented left-handed batsman with an exceptional ability to build massive innings. Lara is the world record holder for 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 on 12 April, 2004). In scoring the innings of 400 not out, he became the first man to reclaim the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994 (a record that stood until Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003). The score also meant that he was the second player (after Donald Bradman) to score two Test innings of more than 300, and only the second ever (after Bill Ponsford) to score 400 or more in two first-class innings.
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.
Career highlights
- 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 .
- 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.
- He has made an aggregate of 10,000 runs in Test cricket (as of August 16, 2004), which makes him the all-time leading run scorer for West Indies and the 4th leading run scorer in all of Test cricket . He also holds the world record for the fastest 10,000 runs, a feat achieved in 111 matches and 195 innings.
- He has scored 26 centuries (the most for a West Indian and 7th for all Test cricket), of which 7 are double centuries (surpassed only by Bradman) . He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations except Pakistan.
- Over the years, Lara has fought many lone battles as the West Indies batting line-up has become a shadow of its glorious past. He has scored an astonishing 19% of his team runs , a feat surpassed only by Bradman (24%) 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 .
- 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 .
- A devastating batsman when in form, Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs (28) in a single over in Test cricket .
- In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
- Comfortably averaging over 50 per innings (a 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 .
- 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 . 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 inning. His 375 was placed 8th and his three other innings, including the 153 not out, were not far behind.
Batting average
Lara's batting average in Tests is over 53 an innings and in One-day Internationals he averages over 42 an innings at a strike rate (% of runs scored per ball) of close to 80. The following four graphs shows his test batting average over the years in four chronological sections:
- The beginning: his first 55 Test innings, from December 1990 to April 1996, with an average of 60.32
- The first drop of his batting form: innings #56 to #103, November 1996 to March 1999, with an average of 36.00
- Then second drop of his batting form: innings #108 to #138, April 1999 to April 2001, with an average of 30.58
- The rise of his form in recent years: innings #139 to #176, April 2001 to December 2003, with an average of 67.60
