Brian Lara – The early days

THE high backlift. The flamboyant follow through. The ball crashing into the boundary rope. For several former coaches and clubmates, it did not take very long to realise that Brian Lara was destined for greatness. Speaking to Newsday as part of a special feature on Lara for his 50th birthday, several said they just had to see him bat for a few minutes to know he was a special talent.

Before becoming a household name around the world, Lara started developing his natural talent at Harvard Coaching Clinic in St Clair at age six, before moving nearby to Queen’s Park Cricket Club at 14.

Going to Fatima College would have helped Lara’s growth as the school has a rich cricket history. Lara stayed at Harvard for nearly a decade with Hugo Day, Lennard Kirton, Rex Dewhurst, Dwight Day and Indar Ramgoolam among the coaches who saw the left-hander in his early days.

“He always had that talent. We really did not have to coach him – we just had to guide him – because he had a tremendous talent at his age,” Ramgoolam said.

When Lara was around 13 years old, Ramgoolam said he toured Barbados with the club. “On the first tour with us to Barbados he was very small and he scored I think about 76 or 77 runs at Ellerslie College Ground. He batted well and he played shots all around the wicket. I was umpiring the game so I could tell you.”

Ramgoolam said Lara, who went on to break the Test batting record on two occasions, was always dreaming.

“He always wanted to play for the West Indies. Even when he was playing for Queen’s Park, he (Lara) and I used to have our own little talks,” he said.

Dwight said when Lara enrolled at Harvard he already knew a lot about cricket. “He had older brothers and sisters who were playing cricket and he played with them and they showed him the rudiments, so by the time I saw him he already had some conditioning,” he added.

Talking about his favourite Lara innings, Dwight reflected on his maiden Test century in Australia in 1993. “Obviously the big one, the first one, the 277 in Australia. That was the first big one, so that one stands out in my memory.”

Former West Indies cricketer Bryan Davis was also an instrumental person in Lara’s young life.

Shortly after Lara started attending Fatima College, Davis was coaching the school’s first team. Davis had heard about the young maestro and asked some of his players to let him know when Lara was practising with the Under-14 team so he could see first-hand.

Davis said, “I just stood up there and watched him for about five minutes and I turned around to the man who was in charge of him (and said), ‘So that is the Lara?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘He will definitely play for the West Indies.’ He had the ability, he could bat, he could (play) strokes and he was picking up the ball early from the bowler’s hand.”

Davis said breaking batting records was in Lara’s mind even as a Fatima student.

“One day I was coaching him in the nets and he came and ask me, ‘Mr Davis how come the (Sir Garfield) Sobers record for the highest score 365 not out standing so long?” When Lara was around 14 he made the move to Queen’s Park Cricket Club, joining an illustrious group of players to represent the historic club.

Davis, who was also a member of QPCC when Lara joined, said Lara had an excellent work ethic.

“He used to practise quietly when you don’t even know. Sometimes he would come here (Queen’s Park Oval) 7 o’clock in the morning and practise. He had friends who would bowl to him.”

Another person who had a front row view in Lara’s early days was QPCC member and Fatima College alumni Colin Murray.

Murray was a football coach at Fatima when he also heard of the future batting star.

Like Davis, Murray was also encouraged by someone on the school compound to look at Lara bat. Murray, seeing Lara bat in an Under-14 match, said, “The pads were probably reaching up by his waist and this little fellah proceeded to bat. I can’t remember exactly, but he made about 70 or 80. He opened the batting and batted through the innings, (but) he could not hit the ball to the boundary.”

Calypsonian Lord Relator’s popular calypso about Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar was also a suitable song for Lara when he was a teenager. In the song Lord Relator sings, “The West Indies couldn’t out Gavaskar at all.”

Murray said Lara’s strike rate was a bit slow, but getting him out was always a challenge. “The 70 or 80 runs he made was all in twos, but they could not get this boy out at all. That was my first look at Lara and you could have seen that this boy had a special talent.”

Murray knew the sky was the limit for Lara. “The only thing you had to worry about is how much he wanted it. In other words, once he decided that he wanted to make it at cricket then there was no stopping him, because he was so talented,” Murray added.

Lara’s talent started being recognised as he quickly moved on to a number of national and regional teams. By 1988, he had already played for the TT Under-19 team, the TT senior team and captained the West Indies Under-19 team at the 1988 McDonald’s Bicentennial Youth World Cup in Australia (now called the Under-19 World Cup).

When Lara made his debut for West Indies in 1990 it was the start of a career that lasted almost 17 years.