The Last of Them West Indians

Brian Charles Lara, played his last international yesterday. A sad day for all cricket lovers, and one hoped for a better departure than a run out despite his flawed leagcy.

Rahul Bhattacharya says:

This comes from Adam Gilchrist in The Australian a couple of seasons ago. “Mistake,” hissed Lara. Next ball Lara lofted to midwicket for six. Gilchrist taunted Lara to take on the two men behind point instead. Lara strung it between them for four. Next ball was straighter, Lara backed away and strung it through again. Best remain silent now, Gilchrist then decided. This was to demonstrate precision of his skill. But I particularly liked “mistake”. ‘You don’t know what I can do?’ was the strut. That is the Lara motif.

His lazy elegance and his ability to dominate anyone on any surface is stuff legends is made of. You just had to see him batting while the rest of the team was demolished by the brilliant Muralitharan in Sri Lanka in 2001. He made it seem so ridiculously easy that it seemed he was batting against a different bowling attack in a different place. Damn, he even cracked a century and a double in the same Test and still lost!!

Fare ye well mate – you will be missed..


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