Category: People

When Bryan Charles Lara was about 5 years old, someone saked him, “Son, what do you wanna be in life?”. He replied “I want to be the world’s greatest batsman”.

Lara scored 400 not out against England in the drawn fourth and the last test match of the series (which England had already claimed 3-0) and reclaimed the status of the batsman getting the maximum runs in an innings. He has yet again started the word-war about the best batsmen in the world cricket today. It took him just 185 days after Matthew Hayden scored his 380 against Zimbabwe.

It took Lara 582 deliveries, 43 fours and 4 sixes, although he was dropped on 359 when a nick down the leg side was dropped by debutant wicket-keeper Geraint Jones. He equaled the Matty Hayden’s record by hitting a giant six off Garrett Batty right in the lap on Sir Vivian Richards sitting in the Vivian Richard stand over the head of the bowler. And the very next bowl, he sweaped a four down the leg side to overtake Hayden.

Lara has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career but he sure is back and back with a bang. Here are few important events. Needless to say Copy Pasted from some website…

1969 Born Santa Cruz, Trinidad, May 2; youngest of seven brothers.

1984 First represents West Indies at under-19 level.

1988 Makes debut for Trinidad.

1989 Captains West Indies B team to Zimbabwe.

1990 Test debut, third test v Pakistan, Lahore, makes 44 and 6.

1993 First test century, 277 v Australia, Sydney

1994 World test record 375 in fifth test v England, St John’s, Antigua.

1994 World first-class record 501 not out for Warwickshire v Durham at Edgbaston.

1994 Scores six hundreds in his first seven first-class innings for Warwickshire: 147, 106, 120 not out, 136, 26, 140, 501 not out.

1995 Walks out of West Indies’ tour of England after dressing room row at end of the fourth test but is persuaded to rejoin party four days later.

1995 Pulls out of tour of Australia two days before squad leave the Caribbean following fine by West Indies Board disciplinary committee for breach of contract on England tour.

1996 Reprimanded by West Indies Board for derogatory remarks attributed to him following a World Cup defeat by Kenya and for an altercation with team physio Denis Waight on flight from Bombay to London following World Cup.

1998 Named as West Indies captain against England in the Caribbean, leading his side to 3-1 test series victory.

1998 Sacked as West Indies captain when players’ revolt over pay delays start to tour of South Africa but is reinstated after four days of talks end impasse.

1999 Returns from dreadful tour of South Africa where West Indies suffer 5-0 drubbing in test series and lose one-day series 6-1.

1999 Re-appointed West Indies captain for test series against Australia in the Caribbean. Scores 213 in Kingston — his first three-figure innings for a year — to lead West Indies to series-levelling win in second test against Australia. Hits unbeaten 153 as West Indies score 311-9 in fourth innings to win third test. Series against Australia ends 2-2.

1999 Leads West Indies as they lose both tests and all five one-dayers on tour of New Zealand.

2000 Resigns as West Indies captain on February 24. Takes break from cricket for four months.

2001 Returns to West Indies side for Sri Lanka tour making 221 and 130 to become first player for almost three decades to make a century and double century in the same test but still lose. Averaged 114.66 for series, then dislocates left elbow in one-dayer, an injury which troubles him for most of 2002. Scores century in Champions Trophy match v Kenya, then collapses with mystery illness.

2003 Scores match-winning century against South Africa in the first game of the World Cup.

2003 Re-appointed West Indies captain for series against Australia, lost 3-1. Leads West Indies to 1-0 win over Sri Lanka, scoring 209 in the first test. Scores runs at 531 runs at 66.37 in four-test series in South Africa. West Indies lose series 3-0.

2004 Makes ducks in both the first and second tests as England take 3-0 lead in four-match series in the Caribbean. Passes Matthew Hayden’s world record of 380, set in Perth in October 2003, in the fourth test with a six and a four off spinner Gareth Batty.

And does destiny plays a role? Try to figure out a few facts…

1.

– Lara’s previous best was 375 on St. John’s, Antigua on 18th Aril 1994 against England and Lara’s current best is 400* on St. John’s, Antigua on 12th April 2004 against England yet again.

2.

– D.B. Hair was the umpire in both the matches. In the Match played in 1994, he and S. Bucknor were officiateing and in the 2004 match it was Hair and some Pakistani Umpire.

Coincidences Probably Yes? Probably not? I would leave this question to be pondered upon.

Linkx:

1. http://www.cricinfo.com/db/STATS/ is the official website of the ICC to get your facts straight. I got almost everything mentioned herein from this website only.

2. http://www.magiccricket.com/stats/Testrecords.asp is a nice place to get all your records straight. One can find almost all the records. Please note that this website is not edited on a regular basis so there might be a few older records.

Scores at the end of Second Day of the First Test at Multan, Pakistan:

INDIA 675-5 (Declared)

Pakistan 42-0 (Still Batting)

Ok so of those 675, Virender Sehwag made 309 something and got out. Hats Off for such a wonderful display of sheer talent. His innings made yet another great knock of 194* by Sachin “the Maestro” Tendulkar look tiny. With this “century” Sachin’s tally reached 33. Just 2 short of making history. Also I read it somewhere that he would have joined the 1337 club of player who have scored double century in consecutive matches.

So the question is, Was Indian team management right in declaring when Sachin was unbeaten on 194? He needed just 6 more and had he been given just one more over, he would have got it.

Just before Yuvraj Singh got out and the innings was declared, Ramesh Powar the 12th man came to the field and he went back. Everyone knew he had a message for the batsmen in the middle. May be the message was about hit few quick runs and declare.

Suddenly when Yuvraj Singh got out and Rahul Dravid call his men back in the pavilion, I thought WOW what a sacrifice by the great man by going back on 194. Had he got his double century, this would have been his fourth overall and first against Pakistan. I thought when Powar come in the field, he would have asked Sachin if they could declare before he gets his 200 and Sachin would have said YES. That’s why batsmen were called back. BUT when I heard the interview and after match press confrence, to my surprise Sachin was’nt aware that as soon as wicket falls, they would declare. Agreed that the game is meant to be a team sport and individual feats should not be pursued when there are so high stakes. But again there were about 20 odd overs to go after the innings was declared and I strongly feel that Sachin should have been given another over atleast to try and make his double century.

This brings me to yet another question. Was Yuvraj Singh responsible for Sachin not getting to his double century? Alright Yuvraj Singh is young, talented but he is playing at the highest level and you should have more maturity and sensibiliy when you are out there. The last few overs of the innings, I thought Sachin was not given enough of strike. There were instances when Sachin would run half way down the pitch for the run and Yuvraj would send him back. As Sabeer Bhatia says “The greatest risk in life is not to take risk at all.”. I think Yuvraj made this mistake. He should have taken a risky run and tried to get Sachin on strike as he was approaching the magical figure fast.

I think Sourav Ganguly was also involved in the decision at some point of time or other. He is a very very good captain and he should have atleast stopped Dravid from doing what he did. He dissapponted me here.

Overall I am very dissappointed for Sachin. He should have got a double hundred and I believe that if we bowled one over less at the Pakistanis, it would’nt have made a damn difference to the outcome of the match.

Stuff to be included:

Harsh Sir not making thru ISB and MDI and CAT %iles

Dewang Mehta

Rising Rupee

Varishu Bhaiya