Lara leaves the critics behind
“Broad to Samuels, OUT, what a desperate way to bring down the curtain on Lara’s career. Samuels pushed the ball to mid-on, called for the run, Lara answered, and almost immediately Samuels changed his mind, leaving Lara stranded
A huge and warm reception from the crowd and players as Lara headed off but he was clearly unhappy – as well he might be – and he wasted no time in heading off. Samuels sold him down the river and Lara never had a chance to get back once Petersen had picked up cleanly … all he had to do was amble in and underarm the ball into the stumps from four yards.”
The foregoing was the way Cricinfo accounted for the dismissal of Brian Lara in the final One Day against England. It was the way Cricinfo saw the end of Brian Lara’s international cricketing career. To those who have been following the game of cricket and particularly the cricketing career of Brian Lara, his demise in his final innings, perhaps more than anything else, reflects the story of this cricketing genius. Lara, the far superior batsman, was once more sacrificed by a junior player: Samuels. The words of the Cricinfo writer tells it all: “Samuels sold him down the river”. The connoisseur of the sport of cricket will tell the tale of how many times our young cricketing turks felt that they had come of age and should not sacrifice themselves after having made the initial mistake, to the better player.
Here in the Caribbean, that has become a way of life. Our younger players do not care much for tradition, history or legacy in respect of any aspect of their lives or any area in which they have been fortunate enough to become involved.
Thus, to the likes of Marlon Samuel, who is Lara that he should not be sacrificed?
To Samuels, even if Lara is bowing out of the game after a most illustrious career, who is he that he should not be sold down the river?
After all, Lara’s time has come and is now at an end. It is the time now for the likes of Samuels and the rest of the young cricketing turks.
God help us all!
Genius
It is perhaps that we in the Caribbean are not accustomed to seeing before our eyes pure genius. We, therefore, have little experience of this and when we did eventually see it laid bare before our eyes we could not appreciate it. In many respects, it was like casting pearls before swine.
It is an unfortunate reality that while we here in the Caribbean sought after any and every possible issue about which to abuse Brian Lara, the rest of the international cricketing community saw his genius, appreciated it and were willing to lie prostrate before him even if he did not score big in their presence.
The South Africans were not prepared to go to the cricket if Lara did not make the team on that fateful first tour of South Africa.
In India, scores of cricket aficionados moved around the nation just to catch a glimpse of this cricketing magician.
In Australia, the legendary Donald Bradman declared him the best he had ever seen while on his way to scoring the most impressive 277 the world has ever known. Shane Warne and Glen McGrath have accredited Lara as being top of the heap, well ahead of anyone in their time, including their own Steve Waugh and India’s Sachin Tendulkar.
In Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan sees him as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
In England, they see Lara as having no equal in the game.
In New Zealand, they credit him with pure cricketing genius.
In Pakistan, the greats have lauded him year after year. Danish Kaneria credits Lara with being able to do what no other player has been able to do: read the spin on the ball from his hands. “He is a fantastic timer of the ball. He sees the ball from my hand and reads it so well which is the sign of a great player.”
Here at home in the Caribbean, Lara is a spoilt brat – nothing to do with his game. We harass him for not smiling while he arrives at the airport. We have identified him as selfish and uncaring. He has been given all sorts of negative nomenclatures and many feel it necessary to boast, “we don’t like him”.
The Lara Chronicle
In 1990, in Karachi, Pakistan, Lara played his first One Day International against the home team. He scored 11 and was trapped leg before by Waqar Younis. Later that same year, Lara replaced Carlisle Best on the West Indies Test team and made his debut in the third Test against Pakistan at Lahore. He made 44 and 5 in a drawn match.
In 1993, playing against Australia in Sydney, Lara cultured a sizzling maiden Test century that soon became his first double century. He scored an amazing 277 that got Sir Donald Bradman to leave his home filled with joy to observe the emergence of a cricketing genius on the world stage. Bradman actually felt that in that particular innings Lara could easily have broken Gary Sobers’ world Test record of 365.
The truth was later revealed that after being pushed, the Australian team gathered and Shane Warne it was who told the captain that his idea may be silly but that the only option left to them to get the wicket of the young Lara was an orchestrated run out. They all acknowledged that there was nothing that any of the bowlers could have done to capture his wicket.
At the age of 24, Lara became the new world Test record holder, surpassing Sobers’ 365 while playing against England in Antigua in 1994.
Always keen on challenges, Lara very humbly declared: “I’m only 24, and I must try my best to keep going and to improve … I will be aiming to beat my record, and I think I can do it one day.”
Of course, the record was broken 9 years later by Australia’s Matthew Hayden, only to be recaptured by Lara a mere six months later in April 2004 in Antigua.
1994 was, however, Lara’s most remarkable year in the game of cricket. Shortly after capturing the world Test record in Antigua, he moved on to England where, playing for Warwickshire, he heaped 501 at Birmingham, a new first-class record in the game of cricket, to surpass Hanif Mohammad’s 499.
In 1997 Lara assumed the captaincy of the West Indies team. In the encounter against Australia in Jamaica in the home series in 1998, he faced an angry Jamaican crowd, upset at the fact that he had replaced their own Courtney Walsh as the region’s cricket captain. They walked with placards ready to boo him at every turn. Instead, the cricketing genius caused the Jamaicans to place their placards under their bottoms and chant, “Lara! Lara!” as he delivered a stunning batting performance against the Aussies to score 213. Once more he had come through in adversity.
In the Second Test Lara turned on the heat and scored an amazing and exciting 213 against the Australians in Barbados where he scored an unbeaten 153. This achievement was rated as the second-best in the history of Test cricket.
In November 2004 Lara reached another historic milestone when he surpassed Vivian Richards’ 8,540 to become the West Indies highest Test scorer. One month later he hammered South Africa’s Robin Peterson in one over: 4,6,6,4,4,4, to become the new record holder for the most runs in a single over in Test cricket.
In April 2004 he scored the first recorded 400 in Test history and followed this with his attainment of 10,000 runs at Old Trafford in England later in the same year while playing against England.
In November 2005 Lara went past Allan Border’s record of 11,174 runs in Test cricket with a double-ton in the third Test at Adelaide. Lara, with eight double-centuries, moved clear of Wally Hammond. In December last year Lara entered the real of the few who have scored over 10,000 runs in One Day Internationals, becoming the one to have attained this one-day total and over 11,000 runs in the fewest number of innings.
The Mettle of the Man
Brian Lara has indicated in no uncertain terms that his score of 153 not out against Australia in Barbados was one of the best he has ever played. Interestingly, when asked about it, he simply noted:
“The pressure sometimes gets the better of me but it’s a lovely feeling to have the chips down, back against the wall, and come up with something special.”
Indeed many of Lara’s innings were special.
To many Lara remains the greatest player of spin the world has ever seen.
When on the go there was no bowler in the world that was spared and it seemed impossible to get him out. That was the case when he scored 277 against Australia and again when he scored 501. It was this vintage genius that we saw when he slammed the English team for 400 and then declared. All of the commentators, without exception, lauded the innings as one of the greatest ever seen and noted that he could have gone on to score 500 or even 600 runs if he wanted to.
But it is this genius with the bat that has caused Lara the criticisms that have hounded him over the years. His batting brilliance was required by the fans at all times. He should never have failed in any innings. His slump in form was neither understood nor pardoned by the cricketing fans in the Caribbean.
Ken Gordon in an interview following Lara’s announcement on 19th April 2007, stated: “It is clearly a fundamental changing of the guard … Brian Lara has carried West Indies cricket perhaps for two decades and no one can take that away from him.
“People may say lots of things about he’s done this and he’s done that. But let’s understand, there’s a price that goes with genius. All our real greats, many of them have tended to be awkward, or people for one reason or another have been critical of them because I suppose they are driven by different forces and they think differently.”
“We have to take the whole picture and accept the good with the bad. But overall, I think he’s so much more on the plus side. He’s been tremendous for West Indies cricket and I’d really like to see us honour that … I indicated to him that I hoped we would be able to find some way to convey our appreciation for him. His view was that he would like to go very quietly.”
It is to our undying shame as a Caribbean people that while everywhere else in the cricketing world his batting genius was recognised and lauded at every turn and that people traveled many miles just to get a glimpse of his brilliance, even if he did not score much, his own Caribbean people were unforgiving.
It is most interesting that many of his critics came from former Test players, many of whom, in their own heyday, were neither among the most disciplined nor were they prone to accepting the very criticisms they were so eager to deliver on Lara’s head. But that comes with the territory.
Lara’s departure means, therefore, that for some time to come, our commentators and Lara’s detractors and numerous tormentors would have to get accustomed to finding someone else on whom to turn their guns. There is no genius in the team now nor is there any that can be seen lurking on the horizon.
Lara’s contribution to the sport will resonate around the cricketing world for many years to come, even as we here in the Caribbean seek to quickly bury him in the pettiness that leaves us little more than V.S Naipaul’s “Mimic Men.”
