Dear Editor,
Recently a letter was published in SN (‘Lara should not be criticized,’ July 27) giving a lot of statistics on Brian Lara, and I would like to take this opportunity to totally endorse everything the writer commented on, while adding a few of my own obervations. In the early 1990s, when my son was around 11 years old, I took him to the GCC to see the West Indies play. He had grown up in the USA where his consuming interest in sports was basketball, and he really knew little of cricket. After two hours of play, my son asked me when was Lara going to bat, at which time I informed him that Lara was not batting on that particular day. He became quite upset and demanded that we leave immediately because his interest in the game of cricket centred on Brian Lara.
Editor, the greatest batsman who ever strode a cricket pitch is Lara; he has the records to prove it and his technique and style are so superlative that there is no one in the history of cricket, who can even come close to matching this spectacular sportsman. The way Lara could concentrate on the job at hand, inspire his team-mates and devastate the opposing side’s bowling, place him in the top echelons of West Indian cricket greats like Sobers, Worrell, Kanhai and Gibbs, and he will always be the pride of our region.
It is a crying shame that Lara is not included in the curent WI team, because he is a true star and would still score a lot of runs for our side, I am sure. The WI team needs to secure Lara’s return and positive results will accumulate once he is back in the team and doing what the fans love to see him do – breaking more records and making a lot of runs for all of us with his special creative and gifted skills. The low level to which WI cricket has descended is indicative of the fact that we need to adopt innovative methods in trying to rally our team to greater heights. Bringing Lara back will be big news and will give the WI team a star quality which is lacking and which is a serious catalyst in generating team spirit and spectator interest.
Editor, again I wish to commend the gentleman who provided all the vital statistics on Brian Lara while providing the overview which prompted my letter. Greatness in any sport brings an admiration and love for that person and endures long beyond retirement and into posterity. The love and admiration for the genius of Lara is still to be harvested before posterity takes over because he is still a relatively young man and has a lot of cricket left in his soul, runs still to be made and records still to be broken!
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
