100 Greatest Sports Stars - Number 90 - Brian Lara

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On 2 May 1969 a newborn child’s cries rang out in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago.  Not an unusual event in itself but if the parents of the child, christened Brian Charles Lara, could see what was in the future for their son their pride at his birth would have been doubled.

He grew up to be one of the most celebrated cricketers of all time, topping the Test batting rankings a number of times and seizing and holding several records, including the highest individual score in first-class cricket.  On that occasion in 1994 he scored an amazing 501 not out for Warwickshire.  His dumbfounded opponents, Durham had to simply look on as he scored the first and only quintuple hundred in the history of first-class cricketing.

It was little surprise that as that famous day wore on fans rushed to the ground at Edgbaston to witness history being made.

He also is the holder of the record for the highest individual score in a test innings.  This time he was playing against England at Antigua.  The celebrated day saw him score 400 not out.  Over the course of his career he scored many hundreds, but is the only batsman to do that and score a double century, a triple, a quadruple and a quintuple over the course of his career.

To add to all this, in a single over in South Africa in 2003 he scored 28 runs off Robin Peterson of South Africa.  Put simply, the man was unstoppable.

 Lara has his family, perhaps, to thanks for his cricketing success.  As the tenth of eleven children it would not surprise many if the parents didn’t watch their second to last offspring too often, with so many in the family. Yet it was his sharp eyed father, Bunty and Agnes his older sister who spotted his potential at the age of six and enrolled him in the Harvard Coaching Clinic.

As such, Lara’s early exposure to correct batting techniques would stay with him and be developed over his lifetime.  When he was a teenager he was in teams in the Trinidad schoolboy’s league.  He caught the eye of the national under 16 team when his average in the league was an amazing 126 per innings, not to mention his tally of 745 runs in the league.

At the age of fifteen he played his first West Indian under 19 tournaments and the same year saw him represent his country for the first time.  His heroes, Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks were soon to have company in that special league of their own.

1987 was a memorable year as Lara scored 498 runs in the West Indies Youth Championships – the first record of many that he was to break.  The following year he made his debut for Trinidad and Tobago and scored 98 in his second first-class match.  The same year saw him captain the West Indies in the Bicentennial Youth World Cup.  Lara was on his way.

The following year his great opportunity presented itself – he was selected for the West Indies team (rather than the youth team) but this coincided with tragedy.  His father, Bunty, died and Lara withdrew, coming back the year after to captain the B Team in Zimbabwe.

He was not to be held back again.  In 1990 at the age of twenty he became the youngest ever man to captain Trinidad and Tobago.  He also made his debut for the West Indies.

In 1993 his International career truly got underway when he scored 277 against Australia – his maiden test century.  His efforts proved to be the turning point for the West Indies as they then went on to win the final two tests – and the series 2-1.

To commemorate this, Lara would name his first daughter after the city in which he had achieved this – Sydney.



In 1995 Lara was made Man of the Series in the test match against England.  He captained the West Indies from 98 to 99 won Man of the Match against Australia as well as Man of the Series in the famous Four Test Series of 1999.

Lara was reappointed as captain against the touring Australians in 2003, and struck 110 in his first Test match back in charge, showing a return to stellar performance. Later that season, under his captaincy, West Indies won the two match Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 with Lara making a double century in the First Test. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy.

He returned again to the captaincy of the West Indies in 2006 and led the team to victories against Zimbabwe and India.  In the same year he became the first player in the team to ever pass the 10,000 run mark.  He retired from international cricket in the following year.

Unable to resist it, he played again for Trinidad against Guyana – which they won.  Lara’s cricket career is still happening today but what it holds for him is unsure.  Whatever happens he will certainly go down in history as one of the best cricketers of all time.

100 Greatest Sports Stars - Number 92 - Adam Gilchrist

Anyone for cricket?  Number 91 on our list of the top 100 sports stars is Adam Gilchrist, who otherwise goes by the nicknames of Church or Gilly. He is the first but not the last cricketer to appear but this guy is not yet retired from the game and has redefined the role of the Australian national cricket team.

Born in 1971, Glichrist is an attacking left-handed batsman but it is for his wicket keeping that he holds world records.  He is the current holder of the record for the most dismissals by a wicket keeper by an Australian in test cricket and in One Day Internationals.  He is generally thought to be one of the best ever wicket-keeper-batsman combinations in the history of the sport of cricket.

There is more – he is the only player ever to have hit 100 (that’s ONE HUNDRED) sixes in Test Cricket.  Not only that, he has 17 Test centuries under his belt as well as 16 ODIs.  As a player who was destined to be primarily a wicket keeper, that is some achievement. 

He also has a unique record – the only player ever to score a minimum of fifty runs in successive World Cup finals (99, 03 and 07) and has actually won three titles – one of only three players to do so.

At the age of 17, Adam Gilchrist spent a summer with Richmond Cricket Club in London. He performed so well that he was interviewed by the regional BBC Sports Reporter, Michael Wale.

 
He has sometimes gone against the grain of the establishment in as much as he is a self-confessed walker.  That is, occasionally he disagrees with the umpire, who says he is in – and walks off!  Fair is fair, however, a player is more likely to know when they are out than the umpire yet many would make the contrary decision. Not so Gilchrist.

His first class debut was in 1992 and his first ODI (One Day International) debut followed four years later, with his Test debut in 99.  He has played for his home nation in 96 test matches and getting on for 300 ODIs.  In both forms he was Australia’s Vice-captain and captained the team when the regular captains were unavailable.

Here is Adam Gilchrist smashing a century in 57 balls in the Ashes 3rd test. He is the second fastest behind Viv Richards.



Although he has now retired from International cricket he still plays for the Indian Premier League with the Deccan Chargers.  He was made captain in 2009 and led the team to the Twenty20 title in the same year.

It was his style of attack batting that was key to Australia’s ODI successes when he was a member of the team, and as such it was Gilchrist who invariably opened the batting.  For a wicket keeper his batting average is more than reasonable – in the upper 40s in tests with a Test strike rate of 82 runs for every 100 balls and he is renowned for batting shots to every area of the field in a dynamic and consistent manner.

Outside of the sport Gilchrist serves as an ambassador for the World Vision charity in India – a country in which he is immensely popular.