Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
Lara
As we get ready to stage
the greatest cricket show on earth, Flair will put the spotlight on the captains of the participating teams. Naturally, we bowl off this week with eight of the captains including our own Brian Charles Lara and the world's current top team - Australia's Ricky Ponting.
West Indies' Brian Lara
No-one since Don Bradman has built massive scores as often and as fast as Lara in his prime.
Even his stance was thrilling - the bat raised high in the air, the weight poised on a bent front knee, the eyes low and level. Then the guillotine would fall, sending the ball flashing to the boundary. In the space of two months in 1994, Lara's 375 and 501 not out broke world records for the highest Test and first-class scores.
Lara reiterated his genius by single-handedly defying the 1998-99 Australian tourists with a sequence of 213, 8, 153 not out and 100. For a while, excess weight and hamstring problems hampered his once-lightning footwork, and the torrent of runs became an occasional spurt. But after Gary Sobers suggested a tweak to his flourishing backlift, Lara returned to his best in Sri Lanka in 2001-02, with 221 and 130 in one Test and 688 runs - a record 42 per cent of West Indies' output - in the series, and reclaimed the captaincy the
following year.
The task proved as hard the second time round, leading a side where he was far and away the best player and where discipline was a constant worry. He led the team to defeat for a second time in South Africa, and then lost to England in the Caribbean. But Lara responded to the prospect of a home series whitewash with an astonishing unbeaten 400 in the final Test against England in Antigua. In doing so, he became the first man to reclaim the world Test batting record!
Threatened resignation
Then followed a spectacular low, when Bangladesh came visiting and had West Indies in trouble in the one-day series and the first test, prompting Lara to threaten his resignation if his batsmen did not lift their game.
They responded in the following game, and Lara captained the side in England, where the team was beaten in every test they played. Astonishingly, he then galvanised his charges and led the one-day team to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy to spark off hopes of a West Indies resurgence.
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