Brian Lara

Some Lesser Known Facts About Brian Lara

• Does Brian Lara smoke?: Not Known

• Does Brian Lara drink alcohol?: Yes

• When he was 6 years old, he started playing cricket at Harvard Coaching Clinic.

• When he was 14 years old, he scored 745 runs in the schoolboys’ league, with an average of 126.16 per innings. On account of this, he was selected to Trinidad national under-16 team.

• As a first-class cricketer in 1987, Lara scored 498 runs in the West Indies Youth Championships and broke the record of 480, that was Carl Hooper set in 1986.

• In 1995,  after his first triple hundred against England, he wrote an autobiography titled Beating the Field: My Own Story, co-written with Brian Scovell

• In 1989, his father died of a heart attack, due to this, his selection in the national team was delayed, and in 2002, his mother died of cancer.

• In 1996, his first daughter was born. He named her after his favourite cricket ground, Sydney.

• Though Lara is known for his composure on the field. However, during India-West Indies test match in 2006, when Darren Ganga took the Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s catch at deep mid-wicket, Brian Lara asked Dhoni to walk off. That incident caused a huge controversy in media.

• On 10 January 2007, he received the honorary doctorate from the University of Sheffield, England.

• On 19 April 2007, he announced his retirement from all forms of Cricket. In his last match, he scored only 18.

• On 23 July 2007, Lara was drafted to Indian Cricket League. He captained Mumbai Champs.

• Lara runs the Pearls and Bunty Lara Foundation, a charitable foundation that spreads awareness about health and social issues.

• He has been the ambassador of sports for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

• Lara has also been a skilled football player. In his youth, he used to play football with his close friends Dwight Yorke, Shaka Hislop, and Russell Latapy.

  

• He has also been a golf player and has won several titles. In September 2009, he became the lifetime member of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club.

  

• The Brian Lara Cricket Stadium was opened in Tarouba by the government of Trinidad and Tobago in his honour.

  

• In 2009, Lara became an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia for his services to West Indian and Australian cricket.

• In 2009, when the then American President Barack Obama went to West Indies, he styled Brian Lara as “Michael Jordan of Cricket.”

  

• In 2011, he wished to play in IPL at the base price of $400,000, but, no franchise bought him.

• In January 2012, Lara was inducted into ‘ICC Hall of Fame.’

• According to Australian Bowler, Glenn McGrath, “Lara is the greatest batsman he has ever bowled to.”

• In the second season of the Bangladesh Premier League, Lara was made the ambassador for ‘Chittagong Kings.’