Lara set to play 100th Test

Brian Charles Lara is set to achieve another major milestone in his record-breaking Test career when he leads the West Indies against South Africa in the Second Test which starts today (Boxing Day) at the Kingsmead Ground in Durban, South Africa. The 34-year-old Lara will become the first Trinidadian and 28th player to play in 100 Test matches. He joins six other West Indians and seven Australians, seven Englishmen, four Indians and three Pakistanis to show longevity in the grinding cauldron of modern Test cricket. It is a testimony of his powers to overcome the severe demands of physical fitness to join Test wicket record-holder Courtney Walsh who finished his career with 132 matches (519 wickets), the legendary Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards starred in 121 (8,540 runs, 24 centuries) while reliable Barbadian opening partners Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge showcased their talents in 116 and 108 matches respectively. But it was Guyanese Clive Hubert Lloyd who led the way and became the first West Indian to pass the 100-Test mark in his illustrious career. His younger compatriot Carl Llewellyn Hooper became the first West Indian allrounder to surpass that unique milestone and finished his career with 102 matches.

Incidentally all the West Indian players served as captain of the Test team at some time during their career. Lara becomes the fifth left-handed batsman apart from Lloyd, Englishman David Gower (117 Tests) and Australians Allan Border (156 Tests) and Mark Taylor (104 Tests) to chalk up the century-mark. Hooper finished his career with 5,762 runs, 114 wickets and 115 catches. He joined India’s Kapil Dev who played 131 Tests (5,248 runs, 434 wickets, 68 catches); Englishman Ian Botham 102 Tests (5,200 runs, 383 wickets, 120 catches) and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram 104 Tests (2,898 runs, 414 wickets and 44 catches). Among the specialists batsmen who have crossed the 100-Test mark, only Border (11,174 runs), Steve Waugh (10,788 runs), Tendulkar (8,920 runs) and Gooch (8,900 runs) have scored more Test runs than the gifted Lara who has tallied 8,833 runs at the end of the First Test at Johnnesburg. He edged past Pakistan’s Javed Miandad 8,832 runs (124 Tests). In that match, he also notched his sixth career double century and 23 overall, the same as Miandad. He now needs one more triple-figure to equal the great Richards and three more to pull alongside Sir Gary Sobers.

Lara has embellished his colourful Test career with many notable records but lost the coveted highest individual record score when Australia’s left-handed opener Matthew Hayden who blasted the Zimbabweans to a magnificent 380, five more than the Trinidadian highest registered against England in the Fifth Test at the Antigua Recreation ground in 1984. With his 202 and 5 in the First Test, Lara leaped to the top of the overall Test aggregate for this year. He took his overall tally to 1,271 runs but must produce a substantial score to hold off the challenge of Hayden and his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting plus South Africa’s openers Graeme Smith and Herchelle Gibbs who will all be involved in Boxing Day Test matches at two different venues. South Africa’s 22-year-old captain Smith looks in ominous form and he will partner Gibbs against West Indies at the Kingsmead ground while Hayden and Ponting will be up against the buoyant Indians who registered an historic four-wicket victory at Adelaide while Lara and his team tasted 189-run defeat at Johannesburg. Lara ended up on the losing side for the second time in his career after scoring a magnificent double century, a fate that Ponting experienced after chalking up his highest Test score of 242 against the Indians at Adelaide.

Four years ago, Lara, at the helm of West Indies team, went down by nine wickets against Hansie Cronje’s South African team in the Boxing Day Test match. Hopefully, the West Indies captain will finish this Test will fonder memories. But much will depend upon his great run-getting ability as well as improved overall performances by all members of this team, which has shown remarkable inconsistency for highly paid professional cricketers. Symbolically, much more than Lara’s 100th Test appearance will be remembered for this crucial Test match. It will be an opportunity for the West Indian team to win and level the series. The captain’s heroic batting performances alone will not get the job done. But the ebullient Lara has shown that he is a man for the occasion and another triple-figure mark to complete his most prolific calendar year in his 11-year Test career will be a special moment.