Windies great Lara remains top of the pile
One image leaps out when you’re talking best batsman of the modern era.
A little bloke from Trinidad crouches, bat poised in a high backlift ready to strike, before scything through the ball. Bemused Australian cricketers – some of their country’s greats – watch it fizz across the outfield.
They nearly got whiplash doing that repeatedly in the first week of January 1993, when Lara plundered 277 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in just his ninth test innings.
Stats tell a large part of the story about great batsmen, but with Brian Charles Lara there are plenty more chapters.
On pure numbers Lara is right up there among the best anyway: 11,953 test runs at an average of 52.88 over a 16-year career.
But if you consider batting a sporting art form, then Lara stands alone, with the likes of Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting and Martin Crowe somewhere nearby.
Gaze at highlights of a Lara innings and marvel at a master craftsman at work, the bowlers there to be picked on, then picked off. He could look scratchy and out of sorts early, then flick a switch, unleash a textbook cover drive with a flourish and it was all on. And it would only end when the prince was ready to depart.
Former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath was asked during the Ashes broadcast from Sydney this week who he rated higher out of Lara and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who both vied for the ‘‘best since Bradman’’ tag in the 1990s.
McGrath bowled to both a fair bit, and had Lara as No 1. You always fancied getting Lara early, he explained, but if he got going he could hurt a bowling lineup like no other willow-wielder.
He saved his best for Australia, too, the benchmark side in world cricket these past three decades. Of Lara’s 34 centuries, nine were against Australia, three of them double-tons, as he averaged 51. Against McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Warne – some of the best of pace and spin. Lara was so dominant in 1999 it led to the great legspinner Warne being dropped.
Steve Smith is exceptional and getting better by the series, but how would he go against Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, the current strongest pace attack in world cricket? He bats against them in the nets, the best preparation Smith could wish for to face lesser bowling on docile pitches. South Africa in South Africa, with their powerhouse pace attack in sometimes tricky batting conditions, will be another step up for Smith in four tests in March.
Smith plundered England these last six weeks. Lara bullied England’s bowlers, too, and went even bigger. Antigua was his playground, and a bowling battleground for England. Lara plundered 375 in a test there in 1994, and 10 years later, astoundingly, topped it with 400 not out. What a feat of concentration at the highest level, two marathon innings a decade apart.
Lara just had a presence, an imperious way about him. Smith is on track for a great career, but Lara remains top of the pile and won’t be dislodged any time soon.