Brian Lara bowed out of the game as one of the all-time greats. His career had its highs and lows, but he has always weathered the storm and came out a better player. His world record score of 400 not out in 2004 against England will forever be etched in the memories of cricket lovers around the world. Everyone knew he can bat for long period and doing so at the highest level is what Lara thrived on ever since he played First-Class cricket. His unbeaten 501 bares testimony to his temperament and his skills inculcated in him ever since he was a young boy, dreaming of representing his country at some point. Happy Birthday, Brian Lara: West Indies legend turns 47
There were however many critics, claiming his knock of 400 not out as selfish. He was also accused of putting himself over his team. While there were people who believed that he wanted to reclaim the highest individual score in Tests, which Matthew Hayden had snatched away from him when he made 380 against Zimbabwe, just six months prior to Lara’s magical innings.
First it was the then Australia captain Ricky Ponting. One of the most successful skipper Ponting lashed out at Lara, mentioning that the Australians would never put individual records ahead of the team’s win. READ: Brian Lara’s forgotten hundred against Australia lights up St John’s
“It’s hard to imagine an Australian player doing it,” Ponting told AAP. “It’s generally not the way we play our cricket. Their [West Indies] whole first innings might have been geared around one individual performance and they could have let a Test match slip because of it. They ran out of time in the game – that’s not the way the Australian team plays.”
Ponting’s views were echoed by English commentator Tony Greig as well. Greig added up to the accusation that this knock of Lara proves that he is not a good captain. “I’m certainly not raving about the innings,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I have to praise it for the sheer fact that he stayed in for so long but it wasn’t an innings that you could be in awe of. It was clear he had the record in mind and was just going to keep on grinding it out until he got there. As far as I’m concerned that is not a good way to play the game, especially when you’re the captain. It shows that Brian Lara is not a very good captain,” he added.
But was it really a selfish innings as many claim? West Indies had batted a little over 200 overs in their first innings, amassing 751 in the process early on Day Three. England were bundled out for 285 in their first innings in 99 overs. READ: World Cup 1992: West Indies beat Pakistan in Brian Lara-lit bizarre encounter
With West Indies 0-3 down in the series, Lara could have opted to bat again. But with a 466-run first innings lead, he backed his bowlers to bowl England out once again with a day and a half to go. Unfortunately for him and the West Indies, England put up a much better show in the second innings and batted out 137 overs to deny West Indies a win.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Lara had given his bowlers enough time to bowl out their opposition twice. Failure of the bowlers to do so cannot be attributed to Lara’s selfishness. It should also be noted that Lara was striking at 68.72, which is not a joke. It was eventually England’s resistance, which handed them a draw and Lara’s innings denied them a 4-0 whitewash.
As captain, Lara introduced as many as eight bowlers. He tried every combination possible within his reach to ensure West Indies registered a conciliatory win in the series, but that sadly was not enough. In the end, the Test was remembered for his breathtaking innings.
Granted Lara did not have a great record as captain, winning just 10 of his 47 Tests in charge. West Indies could have not won the Antigua Test for many reasons, but Lara’s selfishness surely wasn’t one of them.
(Pramod Ananthis a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
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