Lara committed to West Indies success
Guyana Chronicle
April 19, 2004
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) - West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara has indicated he wants to see a successful West Indies team emerge in the twilight of his career.
Writing in his weekly column in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, Lara said breaking the world batting record for the highest individual Test innings was of little interest to him, in the context of what he wanted to be a part of in the future.
“I want very much to see us beating the opposition, both at home and away,” wrote Lara, who scored an unprecedented, undefeated quadruple hundred in the fourth and final Test against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground last week.
“Today, this is still my number one goal. I will continue to pursue it, whether or not I wear the captain’s armband or even if I no longer hold the double world batting record.
“West Indies cricket has become a source of perpetual apologies, division and embarrassment. Although it will be improbable to assume that this achievement has “healed our wounds”, as some have suggested, we need to put the past behind us and see this as a new beginning.”
Lara said that when Australia’s Mathew Hayden broke his then world record score of 375, hitting 380 against Zimbabwe, he thought that it was the best thing that could have happened to him.
“It happened at a time when I was looking forward to using this young West Indies team as the catalyst for our people to be proud of their West Indian heritage and sporting prowess once again,” he wrote.
“The fact that it fuelled my detractors’ desire to pull me down was the only disturbing factor. I was asked if I could regain the record and I knew that question would have been coming, but I was well prepared.”
Lara stated that West Indies cricket remains his “heart and soul” and was the driving force behind everything he did.
“I held my first bat at the age of three and, from that moment, it has been all that I ever wanted to do,” he wrote.
“I am not a regular churchgoer, but I do recognise that there is a Greater Force in the Universe, to whom praise must always be given. I felt his presence throughout my innings and at one point I realised that all I had to do was the footwork. He took care of everything else.”
Lara also holds the world record for the highest individual innings in first-class cricket of 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham, a mark he set in the English County Championship 10 years ago.