SJohn’s Playground, Antigua. At 11.46am on April 18, 1994, the 30th anniversary next week, Brian Lara pulled a short ball from Chris Lewis to the leg-side boundary, Cricket History is written. Garfield Sobers’s record of 365 Test runs stood for 36 years and seemed an insurmountable “north wall” of batting skill. It wasn’t until 24-year-old Lara surpassed this record in just her 16th Test.
The scenes and stories that followed have become indelible: the jubilant crowd streaming onto the pitch, Sir Gary strolling through them to anoint the new West Indies batting record holder and crown prince, Laura kneeling in biscuit colours Kiss on the wicket. The bail went unnoticed by all but wicketkeeper Jack Russell, who was just outside his groove after Lara grazed his own stumps while hitting Lewis rest. “I remember the predicament as if it was yesterday,” Russell recalled with a laugh. “‘If it falls off, I’m going to have to appeal here.’ I don’t think I’m going to get off the island.”
Remarkably, the ball was also untouched and ignored, sitting next to the advertising hoarding until play resumed some 20 minutes later. Perhaps fitting, since this moment is all about bat dominance. Laura’s genius.
Lara appears to be fully formed in Test cricket. In only his fifth Test, he scored 277 runs against Australia in Sydney. His powerful periscope back lift allows him to hit the ball with the power of a trebuchet, he has the timing of a Swiss clock and seems to have the ability to hit the ball exactly where he wants it.
Mike Atherton, captain of the England team in the 375th over of the 1994 innings, tells the story of how when Lara slipped for the first time in the 291st over, Lara ended up in the next Push the ball into the open area. “He could very well have been playing Mickey…I don’t know because his talent is way beyond my comprehension.”
Angus Fraser and Chris Lewis bowled Lara a collective 76 in the innings; they agreed with Atherton, each explained Said, Lara is a nightmare for pitchers because he can deliver to any area he wants. Fraser – whose trusty flannels were tucked into his trousers, giving him the air of a busy waiter at the best of times during England’s hectic and lengthy spell – said , bowling to Laura was a whole new level of frustration. “He was unfathomable,” he recalled. “It was impossible to throw the ball, and he would make you look like a fool.”
Game 375 changed Laura’s life. With it comes more attention and wealth. The Trinidad government gave him a prime piece of land to build a house on. Interestingly, Fraser remembers Lara inviting the England team to the stunning estate for a drink and a tour four years later. The naming of the room attracts attention. “As we walked through it, he pointed at the rooms and said, ‘This is the Tufnell Suite, this is the Fraser Wing, this is the Lewis Kitchen, this is the Caddick Lounge.’ He used the English bowlers’ Named various areas of his house and they ‘allowed’ him to earn money to build such a beautiful place.”
Beyond fame and fortune, as the clock strikes 375, there’s something more intangible: form. The day after the game in Antigua, Lara flew to England where he signed a £40,000 contract to play for Warwickshire. This is money that a modern player can earn in the blink of an eye in the Indian Premier League, but at the time it was a huge transfer fee. Lara did not disappoint. What followed was the source of the runs, a purple hit that remains one of the greatest ever to be played in the game.
Take a deep breath. On 29 April, Lara scored 147 runs from 160 balls against Glamorgan in the first innings after the Antigua game. The following week he scored 106 and 120 against Leicestershire. Next, it was 136 off 72 balls against Somerset. Lara has now hit five hundreds in five innings – only Don Bradman, CB Fry and Mike Proctor have hit six in six innings. Laura seemed destined to join them and then rise above them, to stand out.
Richard Johnson of Middlesex County had other ideas. He dismissed Lara for 26 runs.
“I’d love to say it was part of the plan, but the fact is we didn’t have any plans for Brian at all, how could you?” Johnson, the current county head coach, said with a laugh. The former seamer was just 19 at the time and had only played a handful of first-class games. What about delivery? The one who stopped Laura from embarking on the Centenary Road?
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“I can’t say it wasn’t that fascinating! It was a side-leg stranglehold… He somehow pushed me to the back and got caught. I’d love to say I knocked him out, that was a Great bowling, but it wasn’t.”
Johnson still vividly remembers the circus surrounding Laura. “The next day, the Sun published a photo of me and Laura on the back cover with the headline ‘Cunning Dickie makes Laura sick’. My mother Got that picture mounted somewhere.”
Johnson’s wicket killed Lara, but it was short-lived. In a way, that makes what happened next all the more remarkable. Lara scored 140 in the second innings against Middlesex before returning to Edgbaston to take on Durham. Four days later, he scored 501 not out. In less than eight weeks, Brian Lara has topped the charts in both Test and first-class cricket. Thirty years later, he still does.
