Tony Becca, ColumnistBRIAN LARA may not be the greatest batsman of all time. He is certainly the best of his time, however, and undoubtedly one of the best of all time in the company of batsmen like Don Bradman of Australia, George Headley of the West Indies, Wally Hammond of England, Gary Sobers and Viv Richards of the West Indies.
When it comes to scoring runs, however, to breaking and setting records, Lara is second only to Bradman - the batsmen who, in 52 Test matches, scored 6,996 runs at a fantastic average of 99.94 and who stroked two triple centuries and 12 double centuries.
Although his average of 54.04 pales in comparison to Brad-man's, Lara, the great left-hander, boasts a world record 11,187 runs from 121 matches at an average, one score of 400 not out, one score of 375, and eight double centuries four more than West Indian Gordon Greenidge, one more than Hammond, and four behind Bradman.
greatness
Lara's greatness is underlined by the fact that 10 years after breaking Sobers' world record of 365 not out, after losing the record to Australia's Matthew Hayden, he not only became the first batsman to hold the record twice, but in doing so he also became the first batsman in the history of the game to score 400 runs in a Test innings.
On top of that, Lara, like so many of the world's great batsmen, has scored two centuries in a Test match 221 and 130 versus Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001/02, he holds the world first-class record of 501 not out batting for Warwickshire against Durham.
He has also scored 31 centuries one behind Steve Waugh and three behind Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, and in terms of strokeplay, dominance, and winning matches, he has played some of the finest innings in the history of the game including a majestic 277 run out versus Australia at Sydney in 1992-93, a superb 152 against England at Trent Bridge in 1995, an amazing 153 not out against Australia at Kensington Oval in 1999, a dashing 100 off 84 deliveries against Australia in Antigua, and a scintillating 202 versus South Africa at the Wanderers in 2003.
In terms of strokeplay, the innings at Sydney, on a turning pitch, against a bowler like Shane Warne, and going to bat with West Indies on 31 for two chasing 503 for nine declared, is rated among the best of the all-time; and the one at Kensington Oval, the one took the West Indies to 311 for nine and victory after they were falling at 105 for five and 248 for eight, was ranked by Wisden as the second greatest innings in the history of the game.
On Saturday in Adelaide, Lara played yet another great innings.
Going to bat in the third and final Test match after three dubious decisions and needing 213 runs to equal Allan Border's record of 11,174 runs in a career, Lara, a batsman who seems capable of scoring runs whenever he wishes to do so, a batsman who always rises to the occasion, went out to a standing ovation and proceeded to stroke 22 boundaries while scoring 226 runs off 298 deliveries.
The greatness of the performance was underlined by the fact, not only that by going to bat at 19 for two in the sixth over and leaving the scene at 381 for eight in the 99th over, he scored his runs out of 362 runs, but also by the fact that only one batsman, Dwayne Bravo with 34, reached 30 runs in the innings.
Is Lara the greatest batsman who ever lived? Apart from the fact that it is difficult to compare batsmen of different generations, with a batsmen like Bradman to contend with that is unlikely.
Is Lara the greatest West Indies batsman of all time? Apart from the fact that it is difficult to compare batsmen of different generations, with batsmen like Headley, Sobers and Richards to contend with that is arguable.
done almost everything
Batting, however, is scoring runs, it is breaking and setting records, and in that regard, Lara has done everything or almost everything.
As R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, after presenting the Australian's claim as the greatest batsman of all time, after discussing his technique and his style, his performance against the good teams and the great bowlers, wrote of Bradman many, many years ago: "but when you go the rounds you come back to Bradman and his runs, they not speak, they exist, a monument more lasting than bronze."
