“Did I entertain you?” he failed to conceal his emotions and asked the packed stadium at Barbados.
Brian Charles Lara, will no longer come to entertain the cricket loving junta across the world, and believe me there would be a lot less number of people watching West Indies go into the field sans Lara. We would be deprived of the most artistic, moody, enigmatic and the most talented batsman of this generation, the murlidharans, the Kanerias, the Brett Lees can heave a sigh of relief, now they will not face majestic magician taking guard on the striker’s end to torment them.
There would be batsman with better records, more centuries and more runs, but there would be no one who can bat with burden of a mediocre team on his shoulder, some perennial critics (Mr. holding, what will you do now ? there is no Lara to criticize.. get a new job) and ever opposing WCB, still writing epics after epic (375*, 400, 501), producing miracles (He scored 153* against Australia batting taillenders to defeat Australians, the innings is rated second best in the history of test cricket, and taking WI to 2-2 draw after 2-0 in favor of Aussies) and showing the world what is determination and mental fortitude (When most of the people were writing obituary of his batting when he was out of WI side, he came back with 196 in the very first innings of his return.)
When Steve Waugh was asked “Whom do you like most to watch as batsman?” the answer was a quick “Lara”. Nobody provided better sight than Lara on song, he can do anything with the bat in hand.
Nobody twinkled his feet so and angled his blade so and keep hitting gaps like Lara, an intuition sharpened in childhood when he arranged pots as fielders to practise. In 2003 a man at deep midwicket was taken out and put beside another behind point. 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. — Rahul Bhattacharya in his column on CricInfo
Thats what Lara was exactly, the maverick genius with a touch of ego what makes him special. On his way to the famous 153 agianst Australians, he faced ‘the common manifestation australian sportmanship’ from McGrath after he hit Lara on his helmate with a bouncer and the reply was equally befitting. He pulled McGrath, cut, drove to show that even he is down (sorry his team was down, the same 10 idiot travellers with Lara), you cannot rule over a Prince.
But his farewell was on a sad note, everyone knows that he watned to tour England and continue his test career, but he knew very well that some of the nincompoops who have power are sharpening their teeth to gnaw off his place from the team. So he did what was expected, quit on his own terms.
Those who watched his last innings, something was very clear, the team was not with him. I wonder how he managed to be with these folks. If you remember when Courtney Walsh retired the WI team gave him a gaurd of honour, no gaurd of honour from his own team mates. But the true stature of Lara was evident, when he walked in to bat for the last time, the English team gave him a very befitting welcome to the crease and the pressbox gave standing ovation to one of the all time greatest batsmen. The packed stadium was there to give him guard of honour.
The determination was evident when he came to bat, the timeing was there, the early shine of his shots were giving a clear indication what was on his mind, an innings to say good bye, the last treat from the Prince, but Marlon Samuels did not approve his plans.
But here is my answer to what Lara asked and I think many of you would agree with me.
“Yes. And Nobody entertained the cricket fans across the world like you did.”
Thanks and Goodbye…..
(My earlier posts on Lara http://santosh.wordpress.com/2005/07/15/how-good-is-brian-lara/
http://santosh.wordpress.com/2004/08/27/lara-the-best/)
(Pics coursey: Cricinfo.com)
