Brian Lara's phone call to Matthew Hayden after Aussie broke cricket's most iconic record
Cricket fanatics would have been nostalgic for Lara's left handed strokemaking during the West Indies' 3-0 Test series loss to Australia in the Caribbean this month, but he still holds arguably cricket's most iconic record.
Lara's knock of 400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004 remains the highest individual score by a batter in Test cricket and it doesn't look like being broken any time soon.
Even on the rare occasions players come close, they are reluctant to even consider chasing the record and wiping the West Indies legend from the history books.
South Africa's Wiaan Mulder scored 367 not out against Zimbabwe earlier this month, but his coach Shukri Conrad made the call to declare at 5/626 to let Lara's record live another day.
'Speaking to coach Shukri Conrad (Shuks) he kinda said to me: 'Listen, let the legends keep the really good scores',' Mulder said.
Lara has held the record twice — he scored 375 against England as a youngster in 1994, which remained as Test cricket's highest individual score until Hayden bludgeoned 380 against Zimbabwe at the WACA in 2003.
Speaking on The Overlap and Betfair's Stick to Cricket show, Lara recalled the moment he found out Hayden had broken his record, as you can watch in the video above.
'I was asleep in Jamaica and my agent called me and said, 'I have a number for you to call in the Perth dressing room, someone just broke your record',' Lara said.
'So, I called the dressing room. It was very noisy, very loud and I got to Matthew then congratulated him.'
Lara didn't have to wait too long to get the record back, famously scoring 400 in the fourth Test of the 2004 series against England in Antigua.
'Funnily enough, I felt that for that 10-year period I had a lot of stress because of those records,' he conceded.
'One of my things was to try and be a good captain and leader, not to be strangled by the record, so I didn't worry too much about it - but then came England again 10 years later …'
Lara is one of 15 players who have scored 10,000 Test runs — he finished his 131-match career with 34 centuries at an average of 52.9.
The 56-year-old also shared his reverence for the late Shane Warne, with whom he shared many great battles on the field. The pair later became great friends before the legspinner's tragic death in 2022.
'Of course I got on with Shane Warne, we had a great time together,' Lara said.
'He is the best - I'd go out to bat against Muttiah Muralitharan, and I was confused.
'He gave me more pressure than Shane, but I'd walk out to bat against Shane and the ball would be coming off the middle and about 2-3pm he just produces this magical delivery or spell.
'That's why I rate him higher, because I think he was mentally stronger. With his bowling attack and the pitches he bowled on which favoured the fast bowlers, for him to pick up that number of wickets is very special.'
'The best team I ever faced by far was Australia in 1995. The defeat in the West Indies for the first time in 50 years, from then we were unable to turn things around - they were the toughest but also brought out the best in me.'
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