12 Facts about Brian Lara: The Black Pearl

When one talks about Brian Lara, one does not refer to him as the greatest batsman ever. One refers to him as an era of West Indian cricket that has failed to be emulated thus far. Growing up, in any part of the world, Lara was the name on every cricket fans’ lips. Of course apart from Sachin Tendulkar. Apart from the massive individual records held by Lara, his massive bat-lift and his elegant stroke play will forever remain in the minds of those who watched him ply his trade for the plethora of years he played.

1. The Pride of Trinidad:

Brian Charles Lara was born in Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago on the 2^nd of May 1969.

2. The Prince of Port of Spain:

Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as “The Prince of Port of Spain” or simply “The Prince”.

3. A family of children:

Brian Lara was born into a massive family. He was the 10^th of the 11 children.

4. In the footsteps of Gordon and Viv:

Brian Lara has cited Gordon Grenndige, Sir Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks as his idols in cricket while growing up.

5. The Dancing Shoes:

Brian Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides.

6. Fly Lara Fly:

Fly Lara Fly was a feature written by prominent Indian journalist Rahul Bhattacharya. In that, Bhattacharya describes Lara as: “Lara is a beautiful name. Rhythmic, small and epic. It is a classic film theme, an animated heroine, and in cricket, it is a poem that sings a song. Like in Jean “Binta” Breeze’s “Song for Lara””

7. Leading from the front:

Brian Lara’s impeccable batting record saw him become the newly appointed skipper of the West Indies side in 1998-99. However, his stint as skipper yearned no dividends as the Windies plummeted down the ICC rankings apart from losing their first Test series against England for the first time in 31 years.

8. The greens of South Africa:

Despite the bad blood surrounding the apartheid governed South Africa, Lara churned out one domestic season for Transvaal in 1992-93 season. This was the first time a black man had played in South Africa since the rebel tours in 1982 and 1984.

9. ‘Did I entertain?’:

He announced before the 2007 Cricket World Cup that this would be his last appearance in One Day Internationals. After his last match, in the post-game presentation interview, he asked the fans, “Did I entertain?”, to which he received a resounding cheer from the crowd, after which he went out and took his ‘lap of honour’ where he met and shook hands with many of the fans. Lara stated this would be his last appearance in international cricket, he has also indicated his interest in retaining some involvement in the sport.

10. The Dravid-Dhoni incident:

The incident occurred during India’s tour of West Indies at Antigua. The wicket of MS Dhoni coincided with a declaration of innings from Rahul Dravid. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Rahul Dravid declared the innings when the confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire’s verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara wanted Dhoni to walk-off based on the fielder’s assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes. Ultimately, Dhoni walked-off and Dravid’s declaration was effected but the game was delayed. Lara was called by the match referee for the explanation of his actions but was not fined.

11. Wahab’s shocking spell:

In March 2015, Lara criticised the ICC for imposing fine on Pakistani cricket player Wahab Riaz after his ‘shocking spell’,as it was dubbed, when he managed to puzzle Australian player Shane Watson by giving him sarcastic claps, throwing the ball at him and sending him flying kisses. Watson was unable to cope with that and Riaz’s high-quality bowling in the 2015 ICC World Cup. The team lost but Riaz was fined 50% of his match fee for his behaviour. Lara criticised this decision by the ICC and said it was ‘uncalled for’. He said it was the only highlights of the game and said he would pay the fine himself. He said he wanted to meet Riaz himself.

12. Beating the field:

Brian Lara’s autobiography is titled ‘Beating the field: My own story’ released in 2009.