Brian Lara - 'Prince of Port of Spain' - Smasher of Cricketing Records

Brian Charles Lara (born May 2, 1969) (nicknamed, "The Prince of Port-of-Spain", "The Prince of Trinidad" or simply "The Prince") is a retired record-breaking cricketer, and one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game. He has topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds two of the most prestigious world records for batting in Tests: highest individual innings and the all-time leading run scorer. He also holds the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with a total of 501* for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994. Lara played his international career with the West Indies cricket team.

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).

·          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.

 ·          He also holds 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.

·          Lara captained the West Indies from 1998 to 1999 in this period .On April 26, 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time.

 ·          On 16 December 2006 he became the first player for the West Indies to pass 10,000 One Day International runs. along with Sachin Tendulkar one of only two players to do so in both forms of the game.

·          On 10 April 2007 Lara confirmed his retirement from one day cricket post the 2007 Cricket World Cup. A few days later he announced that he would in fact be retiring from all international cricket after the tournament.

Lara played his final international game on 21 April 2007                                            (Source : Wikipedia – the Free Encyclopedia)