Brian Lara – The best batsman of his era?

Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi had coincidentally conjured up a controversy off late on the same question asked to them.

Ponting argued that Lara gave him the maximum nightmares than Sachin Tendulkar. While Afridi also believed that he found Lara the toughest to bowl to, and not Tendulkar or Ponting for example. So, what could be their logic behind this view?

Both may still be jealous of Tendulkar’s success over a ‘long’ period of time, especially against their teams. The Little Master has scored a tad over 3000 runs in ODIs and Tests each against Australia and thus played a pivotal role in India challenging them in their dominant era, in which mainly Ponting was the captain. While, some of Tendulkar’s finest knocks have come against Pakistan especially since Afridi made his debut.

On the other hand, Lara won hearts over the years with the typical Caribbean flair in his batting and a tremendous amount of resilience to stay at the crease. Any captain or bowler thus, would rate a batsman on the basis of his ability to frustrate and brainwash them of tactics. If it was not for this, then Lara would perhaps still not hold the monumental record of being the only man to score 400 runs in a single Test innings and 500 runs in a single first class innings.

So Ponting and Afridi may not be completely wrong. However, a batsman must be judged primarily by his consistency and ability to win matches and do well in any conditions. When it comes to the former, Tendulkar wins. To bat in the same vein literally for more than 20 years in 2 formats, is more than phenomenal and Lara himself considers Tendulkar greater for that.

In ODI cricket, there is no question of who is the best. Sure Sachin may not play the big innings in a Test match, but only 11 of his 51 hundreds have come in India losing the match! 26 of Lara’s 34 hundreds have come in a loss or a draw for the Windies. So what is the point then of a 375 or a 400?

When it comes to the latter, Lara may have played some memorable knocks away from home but his fragility against fast bowling was exposed on several occasions, by Glenn McGrath for example. But there has been no bowler as such who has ‘troubled’ Sachin either at home or away.

For me, Tendulkar is slightly ahead of Ponting, since Ponting had to bear the burden of coming at No.3 and being the captain of his team. Lara comes a distant third as far as I’ve seen all of them bat.