Weekes voices the unthinkable

It probably took a West Indian to voice the previously unthinkable.

Brian Lara, said Everton Weekes, one of the celebrated three W's, is past his best.

"We have now seen the best of Lara and it's unfortunate to say that," Weekes said this week. "He depends heavily on footwork but his movement has been hindered by injuries."

If Weekes is correct it now seems clear that Lara will not fulfill the destiny that once seemed his by right.

In 1994, Lara broke Garfield Sobers' record for an individual test score with 375 against England in Antigua.

He then became the only person to score 500 runs in an individual innings with 501 for Warwickshire against Durham.

Lara scored six championship hundreds in seven innings, culminating in his world record. His 2,066 championship runs for the season were scored at almost a run a ball.

Such feats drew the inevitable comparisons with Don Bradman, who died this year at the age of 92.

Bradman is the only other person to score 1,000 runs in England by the end of May in seven innings, averaging 170.16 to Lara's 235.20.

Yet beyond the sheer mass of runs and the rate at which they were scored, there was little comparison.

Bradman played his cricket with a ruthless, clinical efficiency. Lara plays with a high back lift and an exotic Caribbean flourish, taking risks that are sometimes calculated, sometimes less intentional.

COZIER WARNING

The world was seemingly at Lara's feet at the midpoint of the 1990s.

But in his notes for the 1995 Wisden, where Lara was named as one of the five players of the year, respected Barbadian cricket writer Tony Cozier sounded a prophetic warning.

Lara, Cozier noted, came from Trinidad, land of the carnival, and knew how to enjoy himself beyond the boundary.

"There is another more threatening consequence of his sudden success and stardom," Cozier wrote. "It places on him an awesome responsibility that not all celebrated young sportsmen can properly handle.

"With satellite television now spanning the globe, Lara has become cricket's first international megastar. Public expectations will be excessive and the non-cricketing demands on him persistent.

"There are pressures that the great players of the past -- even Bradman, Sobers and Viv Richards -- did not have to contend with to the same extent. Temperament, as much as talent, is now likely to dictate Brian Lara's future."

Cozier's fears were sadly not misplaced.

Lara was in bitter conflict with the West Indies management during the 1995 tour of England, disappearing for several days. He returned to play two wonderful hundreds at Trent Bridge and The Oval.

Making his dissatisfaction with captain Richie Richardson plain, Lara then openly and successfully lobbied for the job of West Indies captain.

STUNNING TURNAROUND

A strike over pay before the 1998 tour of South Africa did not impress old West Indies players. The subsequent 5-0 thrashing was even less to their liking.

Michael Holding spoke for many when Lara was reappointed for the first two tests of the following series against Australia.

"Being captain of West Indies is a huge honour and a huge job," Holding fumed. "It needs a big man to do it...Brian Lara is not. He is a spoilt child."

West Indies capitulated abysmally in the first test at Port-of-Spain before Lara somehow transformed his and the team's fortunes in a stunning turnaround.

He set up victory in the next test with an innings of 213 which Cozier reckoned was the best ever played by a West Indian.

Wisden describes his 153 not out in the next test, won by West Indies by one wicket, as "the hand of a genius". He scored yet another century in the final test but it was not enough to prevent Australia squaring the series.

Lara's performances in the early part of 1999 still glow in the memory. But unfortunately for West Indies the great innings are now further apart, the injuries more frequent.

He has relinquished the captaincy he once coveted and his average has slipped to 47, the mark of an outstanding batsman but not necessarily one of history's elite.

The little left-hander is also now 32 and recovering from a recurring hamstring injury.

"At age 31 or 32 you are a better player but you will not get the number of runs you got when you were 24," said Weekes. "Lara is a great batsman but so many things have gone amiss during his career."

Lara's deeds will live forever. But despite his world records he may ultimately be remembered not as an authentically great player but as a wonderfully talented individual who played great innings.

Mail Cricket Editor