The Magician with a wand called Cricket Bat. Review on Brian Lara

____ ,53,____.11.45,19,13,0,7,79,15,____,4,13,4,___48,

___,0,5,36,30,14,13,45, ___

These are just numbers. There is neither permutation nor combination in that. For an ordinary mortal, you would just fill another two digit number or maximum a Hundred in the blanks.

But for this man, the blanks have to be filled with 400*,120,196,176,130,153 & 226.

This is from the blade of a magician who is 5 and half feet tall and uses his nearly 3 feet long wand called as Cricket Bat and keeps bemusing his fans and critics the world over with sheer magic-that is Brian Charles Lara for you. Call him the Pele of Cricket or the black pearl or the midget wonder, he creates his own summit and unconquered territories where it only looks magical to the Cricketing world.

Conquering the World Down under

This is the territory of Australia which has been a nemesis for even this magician for long. He has conquered this territory yesterday and reached the summit of International Test Cricket with 11,187 runs by surpassing another Batsman who cannot be called anywhere near to him in talent, but known for his tenacity the Great Allan Border. If Border was called Kapil’s bunny, then this man was called Mcgrath’s bunny. This man waited for his third match in this series to conquer this team with a wonderful knock of 226 which we were blessed to see yesterday and today. It has been 12 long years since his scintillating 277 at Sydney, save the 1998-99 series at home where he plundered them.

The pitch was excellent to bat on and the Adelaide oval helps with short side boundaries for Lara’s game, but the next best score was 34 from the Windies which clearly shows that He is a moon amongst the several stars of Windies cricketers which do not shine. The moon he is because he weans like a moon and comes back with full glow and sometimes goes hiding in the cloud which is the unpredictability of his Cricket.

Lara-The Beethoven of Cricket

From my 27 years of watching this wonderful game of Cricket, there have been only three players whom I considered as beyond the rest who make this game so simple the way they play and for whom this ball somehow appears the size of the football and for whom there is no such thing called as good ball.

I call King Richards as Mozart of cricketand Lara who followed him to the next generation as Beethoven of Cricket and our own Sachin Tendulkar as Bach of Cricket. No wonder Cricket is a Batsman’s game.

There are three burly big men who play similar kind of Left hand batting namely Hayden, Graeme Smith and Trescothick known for the penchant for big scores and demoralizing the opposition with their stature and style. No doubt they have etched their own chapters in Cricket, but this man defies their styles creating is own text book.

What make him great like the other two is that he creates his own composition like the Great Beethoven. The crouching stance and the short back lift and slight shuffle, he is there watching this red ball like Eagle’s eye and the wand whips it to the place where it wants it in an inimitable style. The great thing about these composers is their hand eye co-ordination, balance and nimble footwork.

Brian Lara has reached the great heights which the other two have not is by scoring 8 double Centuries against various oppositions because he has something extra over the other two, concentration and temperament. No doubt Beethoven reached greater heights than Mozart.

I used to travel 4 kms on Bicycle to friends house in the early 1990’s as we did not have cable network then. He had a big projection TV and have the pleasure of watching that scintillating 277.I have stayed back several nights at his place to watch matches in the Windies islands for the simple reason of watching this genius at play. Now cricket is live at the comfort of home, but we do not have the time.

Himalayan heights of Lara

1. The man broke the record that stood back for 36 years in Antigua against England in 1994 when he was just 24 the score unimaginable for anybody-375.

   
   




2. Lara stamped his genius again with a score of 501 for Warwickshire against Durham including 10 sixers and 62 boundaries in a first class match. This will be the record which will remain for another 50 years until another Lara is born.

   
   




3. He has the world record of most runs in an over with 28 runs which will take another effort to surpass. This he scored off Peterson on the Wanderers.

   
   




4. He chose the same Antigua to surpass Hayden’s 380 with a career best of 400 against England (Fill this number on the first blank in the beginning my rev. Now it will be understood that my rev did not start from blank, but at _____ height.)

   
   

Master against spin bowling

It is truly great compliment when Shane Warne named Sachin as the best batsman who played against him. Then it is the turn of wily Murali to return this compliment on Lara.

Lara scored 138,221 and 130 against Srilanka in their own soil in that series against some very difficult conditions. His footwork against spin bowling is exemplary which adds to his hand eye co-ordination.

For the record

121 Tests, 11187 runs, 400* HS,31 Centuries,8 double Hundreds,46 Fifties,148 Catches

“Gift, like genius I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains”,- Ellis Hopkins

This is a tribute to gifted Genius Brian Charles Lara on reaching the summit.