Brian Lara West Indies cricketer picture and life style update

Brian Lara

Brian Lara :

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM (born 2 May 1969, in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is a former West Indian international cricket player. He is usually regard as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on more than a few occasion and holds several cricketing records, counting 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. 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 ground.

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. 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. 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.

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. Muttiah Muralitharan, rated as the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, and the highest wicket-taker in both Test cricket and in One Day Internationals (ODIs), has hailed Lara as his toughest opponent among all batsmen in the world. Lara was awarded the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World awards in 1994 and 1995 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. Brian Lara is popularly nicknamed as "The Prince of Port of Spain" or simply "The Prince". On 27 November 2009 he was appointed honorary member of the Order of Australia.

Early life Brian Lara :

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.

**Brian Lara**
Personal information

Full name	Brian Charles Lara
Born	2 May 1969 (age 43) Santa Cruz, Trinidad
Nickname	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 England
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/–

Personal life of Brian Lara :

Lara has dated former Durham County Cricket Club receptionist and British lingerie model Lynnsey Ward. During the West Indies tour to Australia in late 2000, Lara was accompanied by Ward.

Lara is the father of a girl called Sydney (born 1996) whom he fathered with Trinidadian journalist and model Leasel Rovedas. Sydney was named as a tribute to one of Lara's favourite grounds, the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Lara scored his first Test century- the highly acclaimed 277 in the 1992–93 season.

His father died in 1989 of a heart attack and his mother died in 2002 of cancer.

In 2009, Lara was made an honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to West Indian and Australian cricket.

In late 2010, Lara and Rovedas welcomed another daughter, Tyla.

International career of Brian Lara :

In January 1993, Lara scored 277 versus Australia in Sydney. This, his maiden Test century in his fifth Test, was the turning point of the series as West Indies won the final two Tests to win the series 2–1.Lara went on to name his daughter Sydney after scoring 277 at SCG.

Lara holds several world records for high scoring. He has the highest individual score in both first-class cricket (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994) and Test cricket (400 not out for the West Indies against England in 2004). Lara amassed his world record 501 in 474 minutes off only 427 balls. He hit 308 in boundaries (10 sixes and 62 fours). His partners were Roger Twose (115 partnership – 2nd wicket), Trevor Penney (314 – 3rd), Paul Smith (51 – 4th) and Keith Piper (322 unbroken – 5th). Earlier in that season Lara scored six centuries in seven innings while playing for Warwickshire.

He is the only man to have reclaimed the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. His 400 not out also made him the second player after Donald Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored nine double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve. In 1995 Lara in the Test match away series against England, scored 3 hundreds in Three consecutive Matches which earned him the Man of the Series award. The Test Series was eventually drawn 2–2. He also held the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking Allan Border in an innings of 226 played at Adelaide Oval, Australia in November 2005. This would be later broken by Sachin Tendulkar of India on 17 October 2008 whilst playing against Australia at Mohali in the 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1998 to 1999, when West Indies suffered their first whitewash at the hands of South Africa. Following this they played Australia in a four-Test series which was drawn 2–2, with Lara scoring 546 runs including three centuries and one double hundred. In the second Test at Kingston he scored 213 while in the third Test he scored 153* in the second innings as West Indies chased down 311 with one wicket left. He won the Man of the Match award for both matches and was also named Man of the Series.

Man of the Match Awards :

Test Cricket:

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	277	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[2]	167	England	Georgetown, Guyana	Bourda	West Indies won by an innings and 44 runs	1993
[3]	375	England	St John's, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1993
[4]	179	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	Match Drawn	1995
[5]	104	India	St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	1997
[6]	213	Australia	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1999
[7]	8/153*	Australia	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	West Indies won by 1 wicket	1999
[8]	221/130	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sport Club Ground	Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets	2001
[9]	209	Sri Lanka	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	Match Drawn	2003
[10]	191/1	Zimbabwe	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	West Indies won by 128 runs	2003
[11]	400*	England	St John’s, Antigua	Antigua Recreation Ground	Match Drawn	2004
[12]	226/17	Australia	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	Australia won by 7 wickets	2005

One-Day International Cricket :

Man of the Match Awards – Brian Lara
	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	54	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 24 runs	1991
[2]	69	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 12 runs	1992
[3]	88	Pakistan	Melbourne, Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[4]	72	Zimbabwe	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	West Indies won by 75 runs	1992
[5]	86	South Africa	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 10 wickets	1992
[6]	128	Pakistan	Durban, South Africa	Kingsmead	West Indies won by 124 runs	1993
[7]	111*	South Africa	Bloemfontein, South Africa	Springbok Park	West Indies won by 9 wickets	1993
[8]	114	Pakistan	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1993
[9]	95*	Pakistan	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1993
[10]	153	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 6 wickets	1993
[11]	82	Sri Lanka	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1993
[12]	55*	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	West Indies won by 25 runs	1995
[13]	72	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	West Indies won by 41 runs	1995
[14]	139	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 133 runs	1995
[15]	169	Sri Lanka	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C. A. Stadium	West Indies won by 4 runs	1995
[16]	111	South Africa	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	West Indies won by 19 runs	1996
[17]	146*	New Zealand	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 7 wickets	1996
[18]	103*	Pakistan	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 5 wickets	1997
[19]	90	Australia	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1997
[20]	88	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	West Indies won by 43 runs	1997
[21]	51	England	Kingstown, Saint Vincent	Arnos Vale Ground	West Indies won by 4 wickets	1998
[22]	60	India	Singapore	Kallang Ground	West Indies won by 42 runs	1999
[23]	117	Bangladesh	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Bangabandhu National Stadium	West Indies won by 109 runs	1999
[24]	116*	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground	Australia won by 28 runs	2001
[25]	83*	Zimbabwe	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A Grounds	West Indies won by 44 runs	2001
[26]	59*	New Zealand	Gros Islet, Saint Lucia	Beausejour Stadium	West Indies won by 7 wickets	2002
[27]	103*	Kenya	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	West Indies won by 29 runs	2002
[28]	116	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands	West Indies won by 3 runs	2003
[29]	80	Australia	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queens Park Oval	West Indies won by 39 runs	2003
[30]	156	Pakistan	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	West Indies won by 58 runs	2005

Off the field :

Brian Lara has established the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation, which is a charitable organisation in memory of his parents that aims to address health and social care issues. He is an Ambassador for Sport of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and travels on a diplomatic passport to promote his country throughout the world. Brian Lara received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield on Wednesday 10 January 2007. The ceremony took place at the Trinidad Hilton, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

On 7 September 2008 he took part in Soccer Aid 2008, and on 6 June 2010 in Soccer Aid 2010, playing for the Rest of the World vs a team of England celebrities and ex pros. Lara was also a talented football player in his youth and often played with his close friends Dwight Yorke, Shaka Hislop and Russell Latapy while growing up together in Trinidad. Yorke, Hislop and Latapy would go on to play for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Brian Lara is also a golf player. He has participated in golfing tournaments throughout the caribbean region and has won titles. In September 2009, Lara was inducted as an honorary lifetime member of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club.

Nice picture of Brian Lara