Lara’s proud to be a Parkite

West Indies captain Brian Charles Lara provided the Queen’s Park Cricket Club members and guests with an inspirational and enlightening feature address at the club’s annual Christmas Dinner and Awards ceremony held at the Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain, on Friday night. The world record holder declared that he is “proud to be a Parkite.” And expressed the hope all young cricketers would aspire to become members of the famous club which has produced so many outstanding cricketing personalities over the years.

Lara took his very attentive and receptive audience down memory lane and recaptured in his own words and sentiments some of the significant and historic moments of his career at the club and for West Indies across the global cricketing community. Among the many distinguished members of the club and well-wishers who lapped up the “golden nuggets” uttered by this nation and the Caribbean’s most celebrated sports personality were President George Maxwell Richards, US Ambassador Roy Austin, ex-Chief Justice Michael de la bastide, Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson, West Indies selector Michael “Joey” Carew and Queen’s Park president Willie Rodriguez. Also in attendance were TT captain Daren Ganga and members of his team, winners of this year’s WICB President’s Cup who were honoured. Lara recalled his boyhood days and his dream and desire to play for the famous Queen’s Park.

He paid tribute to  his father, the late Bunty Lara, for providing him the opportunity of realising his cherished desire and his advancement to the highest echelons of international cricket. His record-breaking career will take much more than one night to regale his most ardent supporters and much more than this story to recapture most of the valuable insights he provided last Friday night. Lara spoke of his time when his dad introduced him to the Harvard Club where he started playing at age six.

As he grew older and became addicted to the game, Lara said that he attended San Juan Secondary and was unsure who arranged the transfer to Fatima College where his cricketing career changed for the better. And then another major step was when he became a Parkite,  which brought immense delight and satisfaction to his father. He told of meeting top ex-West Indies batsmen, brothers Bryan and Charlie Davis, “and my surrogate family the Carews, Joey and his wife Marion and sons Michael and David,” and his vision to walk down the same steps which the great Viv Richards did.