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180. 277. 375. 501*. 213. 153*. 400*. 196
The numbers tell a story. The context of the numbers
make the story legendary in the purest definition of the word: that each
shall be talked about across generations.
Bringing the most eventful World Cup tournament to a
final boil, Brian Lara has announced that he has had enough from the feast that
is international cricket. He leaves very few scraps for his
contemporaries but much to discuss on his legacy, the fate of regional cricket
and of course all of those glittering innings.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of his career was the
fact that his Test knocks of 375 and 400, genuinely astonishing feats of human
concentration, seldom ranked in most fans' top three innings. This
point alone is enough to mull over the course of the day and underlined that
he had long transcended the statistical bounds of the game and entered its
pantheon.
In my humble opinion he remains simply the greatest
batsman to play the game. I make this statement not as a biased fellow
Trini but because of the sustained volume of Test runs continued through the
game's transformation into a professional sport demanding ultra-fitness from
its fielders and the laptop analyses of its many coaches. The Don, Grace,
Hobbs and Richards simply did not
play in such a glare and their achievements must be discounted (ever so humbly)
in light of such considerations. Further, those who own the DVDs shall
note that the 400 is compiled predominantly on the onside, an aspect of his
game not fully developed or utilized in his cover-drive strewn 375. In
short, he had reinvented his talents to heavily counteract the traps lain out
after 1994. This act alone is unprecedented.
I'll close by highlighting two personal favorites that
I've used to bookend the number intro above.
Anyone who witnessed his innings through the 1994 regional
season was not surprised at how that season turned out. The one inning
that lives forever with me was the 180 for Trinidad vs. a daunting Jamaican pace
attack lead by Courtney Walsh. Lara imposed his will to power for all to
see in a team total of 240-odd that gradually gained first innings
points. Shots were lobbed over inner rings and tapped and cut for
singles off every overs' fifth or sixth ball as he shielded the tail and became
the team innings. Tony Cozier has called it the most influential knock ever
played regionally and none of the 600 or so persons there that day shall
disagree.
The 196 is against the South Africans on their last tour
and comprises the most sublime 150 ever stroked in my Test memory. With
Pollock and Ntini snorting through and conditions remaining mildly overcast all
day, however, Lara middled everything from the start and drove and pulled with
magnificent authority. I had missed his first Test hundred at home four
years previous and had taken the day off to watch the game with no major
expectations. He was now a 'lion in winter' but for that somehow
intimate afternoon, he held back the years and made it a genuinely
thrilling afternoon. I noted the next day that Colin Croft (our resident
cynic) labeled it his favorite Lara knock. No arguments here.
Over the years I have stood and applauded every century
whether seen on TV or heard on the radio and when he enters the pavilion for
the last time on the weekend I shall stand now with millions one last time
and whisper 'Thank you, thank you, thank you'.
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