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West Indian
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West Indies
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WI
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Brian Lara
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cricket_no_picpng
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Left-handed batsman (LHB)
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Leg Break Googly (LBG)
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124
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11294
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5302
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31/47
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400
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10
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0
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N/A
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0
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0
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N/A
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148/0
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259
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9359
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4141
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19/57
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169
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81
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4
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1525
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0
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2/5
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148/0
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29 March
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2006
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(born
May 2 ,
1969 ) (
Nicknamed "The Prince of Port-of-Spain" or simply "The Prince") is a
West Indian Cricketer . Lara is acknowledged as one of the world's greatest
Batsmen , having several times topped the
Test batting
Rankings and being the current world record holder for the
Highest Individual Innings Score and the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket.
Lara has shown an almost unparalleled ability to build massive
Innings , and holds several world records for high scoring. He has 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 in 2004). He also holds the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking
Allan Border in November 2005. He is the only man to have reclaimed the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until
Matthew Hayden 's 380 against
Zimbabwe in 2003. His 400 not out also made him the second player after
Don Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after
Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored eight double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve.
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. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy and seemed to have finally started their comeback from years of poor performance.
In March 2005, Lara, along with six other senior players, was dropped by the West Indies Cricket Board from the West Indies team over their personal
Cable & Wireless sponsorship deals, which clashed with the Cricket Board's main sponsor,
Digicel . The issue was resolved after the first Test of the series against the touring
South African Team . Lara returned to the team for the second Test (and scored a huge first innings score of 196), but in the process lost his captaincy indefinitely to the newly-appointed
Shivnarine Chanderpaul . In the next Test, against the same opponents, he scored a majestic 176 in the first innings, which was hailed by many as one of his best innings in recent years. After an indifferent one day series against South Africa, he once again established himself as one of the leading batsmen of the modern era when he scored his first Test century against the visiting Pakistanis in the first Test at
Kensington Oval ,
Bridgetown ,
Barbados .
On
April 26 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time. This followed the resignation of
Shivnarine Chanderpaul , who had been captain for just thirteen months - in which the West Indies won just one of the 14 test matches they had competed.
Brian was born in Cantaro,
Santa Cruz ,
Trinidad And Tobago . He is 10th in a family of 11 children. His dad Bunty Lara died in 1988. His mother Pearl Lara suffered from cancer and died in January 2002. He is also the father of an eight-year-old daughter called Sydney with Trinidadian model
Leasel Rovedas .
From an early age, Lara showed precocious talent. His father Bunty and one of his older sisters were first to recognize young Brian's exceptional batting talents and enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic only at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in proper batting techniques.
Lara's first school was St. Josephs Roman Catholic primary. Then he went to San Juan secondary, but played no cricket there. A year later, fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College. He moved in with his fellow Trinidadian Test player ,
Viv Richards and the left-handed
Roy Fredericks .
Lara began his cricket career while at school in Fatima College. When he was 14, he played in the under-16 and First Divisions of national schoolboys' cricket. He amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league that year at an astounding average of 126.16 per innings. Immediately afterwards he was selected for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under 19 youth tournament. In
1984 , Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 Test Cricket. 1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when he broke the West Indies youth batting record. In January,
1988 , Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Barbados. The Bajan attack contained
Joel Garner and
Malcolm Marshall . Lara batted nearly a full day and made 92. Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup. His innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the 1988-89 Indians elevated Lara's reputation even further. He was selected for the Port of Spain Test of that season. He did not play, however, and at the same time suffered the personal setback of the death of his father. In 1989, he captained West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145 for the West Indies 'B' team in Zimbabwe, a side that included several players with Test experience. In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest ever captain and won the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 & 6.
Lara loves carnivals, Chinese & Italian foods, and is known to be a practical jokester.
- 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. {Link without Title} . It was also the highest individual score in all Tests between the two teams, the fourth-highest ever recorded against Australia.
- 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.
- After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record 375 by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record — a unique feat — scoring 400 not out in 2004. With this innings he became the second player to score two Test 300s, the second player to score two career 400s, the only player to achieve both these milestones, and regained the distinction of being the holder of both the record first-class individual innings and the record Test individual innings.
- He is the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, a record he attained on 26 November 2005 . {Link without Title}
- In the same innings, he became the second batsman to score 1000 Test runs in five different years, four days after Matthew Hayden first set the record.
- He was the fastest batsmen to 9,000, 10,000 and 11,000 Test runs, in terms of number of innings. {Link without Title}
- He has (as of November 2005) scored 31 centuries (the most for a West Indian and 4th for all Test cricket of which eight are double centuries (surpassed only by Bradman [http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/LEADING_BATSMEN_TEST_200S.html ) and two triple-centuries (matched only by Bradman [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/LEADING_BATSMEN_TEST_300S.html]). He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.
- Lara fought many lone battles as the West Indies collective batting strength slumped over the years. He has scored an astonishing 20% of his team runs a feat surpassed only by Bradman (83%) 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 [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/TESTS/BATTING/HI_AGG_RUNS_IN_SERIES.html .
- 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 {Link without Title} .
- A devastating batsman when in form, Lara holds the world record of scoring most runs (28) in a single Over in Test cricket {Link without Title} .
- He is fourth all-time in the category of most catches in a career by a non-Wicketkeeper {Link without Title} .
- In 1994, he was awarded the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Overseas Personality Award. In 1995, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers Of The Year .
- Comfortably Averaging over 50 per innings (the 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 {Link without Title} .
- Lara has played some of the most brilliant innings in recent years. , 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 innings. His 375 was placed 8th and his three other innings, including the 153 not out, were not far behind.
Lara's
Batting Average in
Tests is impressive, over 54 an innings and in
One-day International s he averages over 42 an innings at a strike rate (number of runs scored per 100 balls) of close to 80. The following four graphs show his Test batting average over the years in four chronological sections:
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