Brian Lara: My One Match Villain

Brian Charles Lara is one cricketing personality I have always admired and respected the most; yet there is one such predominant incident which made me skeptical about his greatness and superiority.

The above mentioned incident is his record creation of 400 runs not out against England in Antigua [2004] and though he garnered accolades from the world across, as a fan of the sport I never felt anything worth while about that mammoth total, at least from the team perspective.

I am aware that I may receive a lot of flak for saying this but as a free individual entitled to her opinion, I firmly believe that primarily as a team player and as a captain, Lara didn't exactly do justice to his position.

The 400 runs that he scored and accumulated didn't help West Indies win the match or to say give them a consolation victory; on the contrary it pushed the team into the further depths of a draw.

However, personally, historically, and statistically it's an all together different story. I know that isn't a child's play to score a quadruple century but what's the point of amassing when no one except the player is going to benefit?

Now, if the situation was reversed with West Indies already having noosed the rope around the English neck and England fighting to save their face; then Lara's brilliant feat would have been a champion's knock!

In Lara's favour, though it will be argued that this exceptional deliverance came at a time when he was fighting his own demons, I would say it came a bit too late. Had he declared the innings much before his record, the match could have been saved and Lara could have dealt with the harsh criticisms regarding his captaincy with some face.

This pinnacle of tabulated sheen coming from a player like him who was a Messiah of West Indian Cricket left me wondering whether he was playing then because he wanted to regain the highest spot of run scorer from Hayden or was it just spur of the moment?

By this I don't mean to say that he had planned and chalked out a program to make 400 runs, No definitely not! but whether he thought about his team prospects and the overall score of the team?

Once again, I wish to add that my remarks don't mean to place him as selfish and a totally self-centred player; I am only voicing my thoughts about his action on that particular day where no one except he and he alone would have been mentally content!

As of now, Lara still remains one of my favourites, but this one huge gamble of his still rankles the core of a cricket fan's heart; for in spite of all his achievement that day, the record will always be associated with a losing nation rather than a winning one!