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On May 2, 1969, former West Indies batter Brian Lara was born to Bunty and Pearl Lara in Santa Cruz, Trinidad & Tobago. The stylish left-handed batter made his debut for West Indies in November 1990 in a One-Day International (ODI) game against Pakistan in Karachi. Serving the Caribbean team until 2007, he added several records to his profile. In 1996, when West Indies last qualified for the semi-finals in World Cups, the southpaw emerged as the leading run-getter with 269 runs in six matches, at a strike rate of 105.07.
In 1994, he played a 375-run innings against England in Antigua and became the third West Indies batter to score 300-plus score in a Test innings. With his sensational knock, he shattered Gary Sobers’ record of an unbeaten 365 against Pakistan in 1958 and became the batter with the highest individual score in red-ball cricket. In 2004, he hammered the English team again in Antigua and notched up an unbeaten 400 and became the owner of the feat of the highest individual score in a Test innings again. Six months ahead of his notable feat, Australia legendary opener Matthew Hayden hit 380 runs against Zimbabwe at WACA and surpassed Lara’s 375-run innings against England in 1994.
Brian Lara became the first West Indies batter to rack up 10000 Test runs
In 2004, during a Test match against England in Manchester, Lara became the first West Indies batter to amass 10000 runs in the longest format of the sport. He pulled off the feat in just 195 innings which makes him the fastest to reach 10k runs in Test cricket. The Trinidad-born West Indies legend also holds the record of scoring the most centuries (34) for the Windies side.
In 2007, he announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 37. During his 17-year distinguished career, he hoarded 11,953 Test runs in 232 innings of 131 games while in ODIs, he accumulated 10405 runs in 289 innings of 299 matches.
