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 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 Pietersen 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.