Sports

Sports

Lara's class rules
Class is permanent, form is temporary. How very true. Brian Lara's career as a West Indian cricketer has tested his mental strength, his cricketing ability and physical endurance as much as a human being can tolerate.

He was on the brink of yet another calamity. His team had been absolutely humiliated in three test matches. Humiliated by the Englishmen who only a few months earlier had been beaten by the Sri Lankans. On that tour they displayed many weaknesses. In particular their bowling looked very ordinary.

All that changed overnight on arrival in the Caribbean. After quite a while they had a fully fit fast bowling outfit. That is the engine of a successful team. The pitches helped the quicker bowlers, in Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados. It suited the Englishmen no end. The West Indian pace men tried but their lack of pace, accuracy and experience let the side down.

Brian Lara could only watch the horrible tale unfold. His own form was not great. The next best player Shivnaraine Chandrapaul was hopelessly out of form. The other batsmen were not scoring consistently.

Meanwhile the Englishmen sensed an opportunity. The experience in the batting held each innings together. There were occasions when Lara's charges seemed to be taking control, only to see it being snatched away.

Lara is the most gifted batsman to be produced in the islands since Vivian Richards. He rates together with Gary Sobers, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and George Headley to be in the bracket of best ever.

What a strange coincidence that it was against the same opposition and on the same venue that Lara broke Gary Sobers' long standing record of 365 runs. That is a characteristic of the cricketing brain. It takes a liking to performing on certain venues. It takes a liking to performing against certain opponents. Mind you it works the other way too. Brian Lara would dearly love to make Antigua his very own piece of turf.

Antigua, in terms of ground size is relatively small for international cricket. The ball also runs very fast on the outfield. This makes it ideal for batsmen to score runs and score them quickly whilst conserving energy too. Coming in at number three after a reasonable start meant it was business as usual for the West Indian captain being day one of the game there was some life in the pitch, but negligible.

So began the incredible journey. The half-century was welcome. Reaching the century meant the skipper had regained form. At the end of the day he had reached 165. Then there were murmurings of big deeds. Play was lost to rain and two days were completed. It was on day three that the amazing was achieved. Brian Charles Lara went on and on and on and in this game there was no stopping him.

His unique strength is the unflappable concentration when his mind is on the job. The crown was back on his head. He had become the first four hundred run man in the history of the game. Often during his rocky career the crown has been mingled with thorns. Not so now, Lara has proved that he is the king of all batsmen. Not just that, he has breathed new life into West Indian cricket.

Top