Brian Charles Lara.

Brian Charles Lara biodata

Personal information
Full name	Brian Charles Lara
Born	2 May 1969 (1969-05-02) (age 42) Santa Cruz, Trinidad
Nickname	The Prince
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Batting style	Left-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm leg-break
Role	Higher middle order batsman
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 196)	6 December 1990 v Pakistan
Last Test	27 November 2006 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 59)	9 November 1990 v Pakistan
Last ODI	21 April 2007 v England
ODI shirt no.	9
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1987–2008	Trinidad and Tobago
1992–1993	Transvaal
1994–1998	Warwickshire
2010	Southern Rocks
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	131	299	261	429
Runs scored	11,953	10,405	22,156	14,602
Batting average	52.88	40.48	51.88	39.67
100s/50s	34/48	19/63	65/88	27/86
Top score	400*	169	501*	169
Balls bowled	60	49	514	130
Wickets	–	4	4	5
Bowling average	–	15.25	104.00	29.80
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	–	2/5	1/1	2/5
Catches/stumpings	164/–	120/–	320/–	177/–
Source: cricinfo.com, 4 February 2008

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM (born 2 May 1969, in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is a former West Indian international cricket player.^[1][2] Lara is generally regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history.^[3] The BBC radio commentary on the final day of the innings (6 June 1994), by Dave Roberts, was being broadcast around the world live via the BBC World Service network, and in the UK on BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4 as well as the majority of BBC Local radio stations. That evening, as Lara neared the all-time batting record, a huge surge of fans crowded to enter the grounds.
Lara also holds the record for the highest individual score in a test innings after scoring 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004.^[4] He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career.^[5][6] Lara also holds the test record of scoring most number of runs in a single over in a Test match, when he scored 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003.^[7]
Lara's match-winning performance of 153 not out against Australia in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1999 has been rated by Wisden as the second best batting performance in the history of Test cricket, next only to the 270 runs scored by Sir Donald Bradman in The Ashes Test match of 1937.^[8] Muttiah Muralitharan, rated as the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack,^[9] and the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket^[10] and in One Day Internationals (ODIs),^[11] has hailed Lara as his toughest opponent among all batsmen in the world.^[12] Lara was awarded the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World awards in 1994 and 1995^[13] and is also one of only three cricketers to receive the prestigious BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, the other two being Sir Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne.^[14] Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as "The Prince of Port of Spain" or simply "The Prince".^[15] On 27 November 2009 he was appointed honorary member of the Order of Australia.^[16]

Content 1 Early life 2 Early First-class career 3 International career 4 Retirement 5 2010 return 6 Controversies 7 Off the field 8 Personal life 9 Records 10 Man of the Match Awards 10.1 Test Cricket 10.2 One-Day International Cricket 11 See also 12 Notes and references 13 External li

Early life

Lara was the 10th of 11 children. Lara's father Bunty and one of his older sisters Agnes Cyrus enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in correct batting technique. Lara's first school was St. Joseph's Roman Catholic primary. He then went to San Juan secondary, which is located in Moreau Road, Lower Santa Cruz. A year later, at fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College where he started his development as a promising young player under cricket coach Mr. Harry Ramdass. Aged 14, he amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league, with an average of 126.16 per innings, which earned him selection for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under-19 youth tournament and that same year, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 cricket.
Lara moved in with his future fellow Trinidadian cricketer Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's father Joey Carew worked with him on his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at Angostura Ltd. in the marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but Lara believed that cricket was his path to success, saying that he wanted to emulate his idols Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks.