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Brian Lara

Chirpy Red
Chirpy Red Posts: 7,587
edited April 2007 in Other Football and Sports
I consider it a privilege to have seen Brian Lara's career, some of it in the flesh too.
A truly wonderful player and IMO the best of his generation and second only to Viv in my all time list.

Comments

  • WSS
    WSS Posts: 25,117
    Great cricketer and also, in a game that oftens gets branded as boring - a great entertainer.
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,479
    Selfish player more interested in his own scores and records than the team. Got lucky that he played in poor era and on some easy wickets. Well overated and not a fit to lace the pads of Viv.
  • oohaahmortimer
    oohaahmortimer Posts: 34,373
    totally agree, the word legend is used too often in sport but brian lara is a TRUE LEGEND
  • Riscardo
    Riscardo Posts: 2,338
    Definately the best of his generation if not any generation.

    You have to consider that from the mid nineties he's carried the whole of West Indian cricket n his back. However I did see Viv score 200 in a day at the Oval, and Clive score a ton at Lords which was as sublime an innings as one could want.
  • Riscardo
    Riscardo Posts: 2,338
    edited April 2007
    [quote][cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Selfish player more interested in his own scores and records than the team. Got lucky that he played in poor era and on some easy wickets. Well overated and not a fit to lace the pads of Viv.[/quote]

    The only time he did this was the second time he beat the test record, and who can blame him. He wasnt captain at Warwickshire so cant blame him for that one.Poor era, and easy wickets ... now that is funny.
  • Chirpy Red
    Chirpy Red Posts: 7,587
    I remember at The Oval in '95 Atherton had placed a ring of 6 on the off-side and he just kept piercing it time after time.
    We'll be lucky to his kind again.
  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,719
    Highest Test Score (twice) and highest first class score must put him right up there in the list of all time batters before you think of anything else.

    Viv was great to watch too. I was lucky enough to see his 291 at The Oval in 1976 live. I can't think of a better innings that I've seen.
  • Sco
    Sco Posts: 2,623
    [cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Selfish player more interested in his own scores and records than the team. Got lucky that he played in poor era and on some easy wickets. Well overated and not a fit to lace the pads of Viv.

    Lara is quality - I'd suggest watching him against Warne if you want a true understanding of his talent. Viv was magic but don't use him to batter Lara's wonder, they are both greats.
  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,719
    edited April 2007
    Good point Sco.

    Warne is arguably the best spinner of all time for those talking of "poor eras"
  • WSS
    WSS Posts: 25,117
    Warne is the best bowler of all time

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  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,479
    Still think Dwight Yorke was the better footballer whatever you lot say. Lara was an overated footballer and it was a good thing he played that other game instead.
  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,719
    Henry unintentionally?:-) makes a good point about easy wickets. Lara played in an era of covered wickets. We will never know how well he would have batted on a traditional "sticky dog" for example and that for me is the one questionmark against him (not his fault obviously!) when it comes to suggesting he is the greatest of all time.

    Bradman for example played on all types of wicket. One could argue the fielding is better now than then but so is the bat technology.

    The opposite is true for Warne. He never had the undoubted advantage of bowling on uncovered wickets, like "Deadly" Derek Underwood for example, which makes his achievements all the more commendable.
  • bingaddick
    bingaddick Posts: 8,184
    edited April 2007
    You can only play what is in front of you. To have achieved the highest test score (twice) and the highest first class score puts him in the very top group of best players ever. His inconsistancy will always mark him down a little for me. Of his contemporaries, I think that Tendulkar and Ponting have been more consistant but, it's hard to argue about the individual innings records that he holds. All in all a great cricketer and a priviledge to have seen him play.
  • Oakster
    Oakster Posts: 6,812
    edited April 2007
    [cite]Posted By: LenGlover[/cite]Highest Test Score (twice) and highest first class score must put him right up there in the list of all time batters before you think of anything else.

    Viv was great to watch too. I was lucky enough to see his 291 at The Oval in 1976 live. I can't think of a better innings that I've seen.

    I was also there Len, with my dad - my first ever cricket match & we were sat in a predominantly West Indian section - still can recall the smell of ganja & the incredible noise - cricket was in those days a game punctuated noisewise at best by a gentle round of applause................
  • Chirpy Red
    Chirpy Red Posts: 7,587
    Some of the wickets produced in the West Indies over the past few years have been atrocious, they wouldn't have been any worse if they had had been uncovered.
    With Lara's wonderful backlift he even made a forward defensive attractive.
    I really do not belive that players can be fairly compared from different eras. The game has changed a lot since Sir Viv retired even.

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