Record-breaker Lara would give it all away, if…

JACK MILNER
 

After Matthew Hayden had eclipsed his Test record for highest individual score – 375 – by five runs in 2003, he reclaimed the record scoring 400 not out in 2004 against England. With these innings he became the second player to score two Test triple centuries, the second player to score two career quadruple centuries, the only player to achieve both these milestones, and regained the distinction of being the holder of both the record first-class individual innings and the record Test individual innings. He is the only player to break the world record twice.

He also became the first player to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings, the first being the record 375 against England and the last being the record 501 not out against Durham.

However, speaking at a gala dinner at the Wanderers in Johannesburg last week, Lara said he would give them all up to have played in a winning West Indian team.

During his time as player there was parochialism in the team and they were always at loggerheads with the West Indian Cricket Board.

“To have played in Viv Richards’ team would have been amazing,” said Lara. “They always played with such confidence and it was all about the cricket.”

Lara was in South Africa as the guest of honour for the Sports Heroes Walk against Aids. It is an annual event to raise Aids awareness in the country. A number of organisations were involved in the event, including Right To Care, behind which former United Cricket Board of SA managing director Ali Bacher is the driving force. Bacher was behind Lara’s visit.

The banquet was held at The Wanderers last week Wednesday and among the speakers were Dr Jonathan Broomberg, CEO of one of the sponsors of the event, Discovery Health, Dr Reuel Khoza, who spoke about handling Aids in the workplace, and Anne Leon, who has been living with HIV for 19 years and is a survivor of two types of cancer.

David O’Sullivan, who interviewed Lara at the function, asked him about his favourite knock. Lara said that after their disastrous South African tour in 1998 they returned to the West Indies to play two Tests against Australia. For the first time the West Indian Cricket Board placed the captain on notice.

Lara was under scrutiny when they arrived in Jamaica to play the first Test. Lara was from Trinidad and there is not much love lost between the two islands, so even within the team and the management he was under pressure.

“When we arrived at the airport and we got on the bus to take us to the hotel, I left my baggage outside and boarded the bus, thinking it would be loaded by the staff. When I looked out the window all the others bags had been loaded but mine was still on the pavement.

“Suddenly somebody gets on the bus and shouts: ‘Hey, Lara, go and get your luggage!’ So, I had to get off and take it on myself.”

Lara says he was very aware of the tension and when they came out to field at Sabina Park on the opening day of the Test and he had to lead the team out, he expected a rotten reception. But to his surprise, bowler Courtney Walsh, who is from Jamaica, put his hand on Lara’s shoulder and walked out on the field alongside the captain.

Lara went on to score 213 and the Windies won the Test by 10 wickets in four days. “For me, that was the innings that meant the most.”

Lara also apologised to South Africans for the 1998 tour which nearly did not happen due to infighting between the players and their cricket board. The team was at a hotel near Heathrow Airport in the UK and stayed there until Bacher turned up with a letter from Nelson Mandela. 

“In our minds, the tour was definitely off until we were handed the letter from Madiba. How could we refuse him?

“So I’d like to share a little of the blame with him. If he’d only written that letter one week earlier, the whole fiasco could have been avoided.”

But history is set to repeat itself as the Windies are due to tour South Africa at the end of the year, but another dispute has put the tour in jeopardy. Lara, however, has promised to do everything he can to ensure the tour takes place. “I’m very biased towards the players because I’ve been in that situation before and I know what it’s like.

“The public in the West Indies come down heavily on the players because it always seems to be a money issue, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Sometimes we just want principle points to be addressed.

“We want to play cricket – we’re born to play cricket – but we want to be treated fairly.”