In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket Roger Seymour looks at one of Brian Lara’s innings during his 1994 run spree.
Laramania
Thirty years have flown by. It seems like only yesterday Laramania was sweeping the West Indies, and Brian Charles Lara was cresting the wave of his own tsunami as runs flowed from his bats like a spouting geyser whilst he essayed an unprecedented assault on batting records.
The 1995 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, which selected Lara as one its ‘Five Cricketers of The Year’, dedicated eight and a half pages in its editorial section to Lara’s feats, complemented by three (of the edition’s 12) colour photographs and one in black and white of Sir Garry Sobers and Lara embracing after the world record for the highest score in Test cricket changed hands. The initial line of the ‘Cricketer of the Year’ tribute reads; “The unparalleled glut of batting records that fell to Brian Lara between April and June 1994 amazed the cricket world and gained global attention beyond the game’s narrow confines.”