Brian Lara

1) Brian Lara was born on May 2, 1969 in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago. He was fondly called Princey.
2) Brian Lara was the tenth child of Pearl Lara and Bunty Lara.
3) Brian Lara has two daughters Sydny Lara and Tyla Lara from Trinidadian journalist and model Leasel Rovedas.
4) At age of six Lara was enrolled in to Harvard Coaching Clinic by his sister for Sunday session of cricket coaching.
5) Brian Lara did his schooling at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School and San Juan Secondary School at Santa Cruz.
6) Brian Lara takes the record for the highest individual score in a test inning. It was in 2004 when his team was against England in Antigua.
7) In 1994 and 1995, Lara earned Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World awards. He is one of the three sportsmen who earned BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. The other two persons who earn the prestigious award are Shane Warne and Sir Garfield Sobers.
8) Fans would do well to note that in Lara’s honor, the Trinidad and Tobago government constructed a sprawling cricket stadium. The construction work for this full capacity arena began in 2008 and is yet to host a national level encounter. Lara’s contemporaries, most noticeably Tendulkar has been honored by having a stand in Mumbai’s Wankhede being named after the ‘god of cricket’.
9) Brian Lara’s most noticeable triumphs are the many runs he compiled in the West Indies and while touring. But, he isn’t remembered for the other contributions that he rendered to the West Indies cricket. He spotted Ramnaresh Sarwan at the island paradise of West Indies and encouraged him to take up Cricket at a national level.
10) The winner of CARICOM(Caribbean community) Medal of Honor and an honorary citizen of Australia, Lara travels around the world on a diplomatic passport promoting the splendid Trinidad and Tobago tourism.
11) Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as “The Prince of Port of Spain” or simply “The Prince”.
12) Brian Lara has cited Gordon Grenndige, Sir Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks as his idols in cricket while growing up.
13) Fly Lara Fly was a feature written by prominent Indian journalist Rahul Bhattacharya. In that, Bhattacharya describes Lara as: “Lara is a beautiful name. Rhythmic, small and epic. It is a classic film theme, an animated heroine, and in cricket, it is a poem that sings a song. Like in Jean “Binta” Breeze’s “Song for Lara”
14) Brian Lara’s impeccable batting record saw him become the newly appointed skipper of the West Indies side in 1998-99. However, his stint as skipper yearned no dividends as the Windies plummeted down the ICC rankings apart from losing their first Test series against England for the first time in 31 years.
15) Brian Lara’s autobiography is titled ‘Beating the field: My own story’ released in 2009.
16) Brian Lara career started to blossom at Fatima College under coach Harry Ramdass.
17) As 14 years old, In the School Boys League, he scored 745 runs and got selected to the Trinidad National Under-16 team.
18) Captaining the Trinidad and Tobago in the ‘West Indies Youth Championship’ in 1987, he set a record by scoring 498 runs. They went on to win the championship.
19) Brian Lara also earns various honors. On 27 November 2009, he got an honorary member in Order of Australia.
20) Brian Lara is the 31st West Indian who earned Honorary Life Membership of the MCC. He got it in 2013.
21) Brian Lara made his first debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the ‘Red Stripe Cup’ in January 1988 and scored 92 against likes of Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshal.
22) The unfortunate death of his father delayed his selection to West Indies cricket team, during India’s tour of West Indies.
23) Brian Lara scored his maiden Test century in Sidney during the West Indies tour of Australia in 1993. He scored 277 runs in his fifth test and helped West Indies win the series 2-1 against Australia.
24) As per Wisden Almanac his inning of 153 not out against Australia in the third test DURING THE 1998-99 series was the best inning next only to that of Sir Donald Bradman.
25) Brian Lara reclaimed the highest score in Test cricket, when he scored 400 not out for West Indies against England in 2004.
26) On April 19, 2007, Brian Lara announced his retirement before the final world cup game against England. He scored 18 runs, before being run out.
27) Brian Lara is the only West Indies cricketer to have scored 10,000 or more runs in both, ODI and Test cricket.