Digicel ‘excited’ about Lara’s bid

Already the holder of two batting world records, the highest individual Test score of 400 not out and the top First-Class score of 501 not out, Lara is only 315 runs behind the all-time record individual aggregate of 11,174 runs by Australian Allan Border.

In a press release on Tuesday, Digicel said they were "excited at the prospect of legendary batsman Brian Lara closing in and capturing another world record."

When the West Indies begin their three-Test series against Australia on November 3 in Brisbane, Lara will by trying to build on his current aggregate of 10,859 runs, which has him third on the all-time list behind the former Australian captains Border and Steve Waugh (10,927). "There is a chance he (Lara) will be crowned the world’s highest ever Test run scorer in Border’s country," the Digicel release stated.

Digicel representatives were at both the Norman Manley and Grantley Adams International airports in Barbados and Jamaica respectively Monday, to see off the Windies players departing for London before travelling on to Australia.

With a full strength team comprising of a talented mix of experience and youth, Digicel, principal sponsor of the West Indies team, say they are looking forward to captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s men returning home from Australia triumphantly.

"It’s going to be a tough and exciting tour in Australia, they (the Australians) are still the team to beat but as England showed there are chinks in their armour," commented Ben Atherton, Group Marketing Director at Digicel.

"We are delighted that everyone is available for this series. There is a buzz of excitement and anticipation around this tour that will hopefully see Windies cricket making headlines as the team celebrate success. Digicel supports them every step of the way and we have put measures in place to help the team stay in touch with friends and family at home as well as benefit from team dinners and have some fun on rest days" Atherton added.

TOP ALL-TIME BATSMEN Runs (matches in bracket) — Allan Border (Aus) 11,174 (156); Steve Waugh (Aus) 10,927 (168); Brian Lara (WI) 10,859 (118); Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) 10,134 (123); Sunil Gavaskar (Ind) 10,122 (125).