Lara Legend Will Live On

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Brian Lara - glittering career.

By PA Sport staff

Brian Lara can undoubtedly lay claim to being one of the greatest batsmen cricket has ever produced.

The man from Santa Cruz in Trinidad has announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket, with the World Cup dead rubber against England on Saturday set to be his final farewell.

His genius with the bat cannot be questioned - his position as the top run scorer in Test history is testament to that - but perhaps his major weakness was his inability as captain to inspire greatness in others.

It is appropriate that Lara's international swansong on Saturday should come against England.

Lara enjoyed the two greatest moments of his career in matches with them, cracking a then Test record 375 in Antigua in 1994 before bettering the feat with an unbeaten 400 at the same ground 10 years later.

He retires as Test cricket's leading run-scorer with 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88 from 131 appearances.

Saturday's game will be his 299th one-day international and he has scored 10,387 runs in that form of the game.

He made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1990 and immediately marked himself out as the next great West Indian player.

Unfortunately for him, the great period of Caribbean dominance was coming to an end but Lara's ability saw him scale the heights.

For a period in 1994, when he played for Warwickshire and cracked a world record 501 not out as part of a run of seven centuries in eight innings, he was almost untouchable.

Coming just two months after his 375, his genius was not in doubt and, when in form, he has been a glorious sight.

He stunned Australia with scores of 213, 153 not out and 100 in 1998-99 and, in another incredible series against Sri Lanka in 2000-01, he blasted a remarkable 688 runs.

In the lead-up to the World Cup, Lara was working on plans to hold an exhibition of his cricket memorabilia in the weeks after the tournament finished.

The West Indies captain is set to throw open the doors of his Ł3million mansion which overlooks Trinidad's picturesque capital city, Port of Spain.

Lara paraphernalia dating his from his boyhood days in Santa Cruz - where he used coconut bats and marbles to learn the game - through to the bats he used in record-breaking innings of 501, 400 and 375 - will be among the items on display.

But, among all the awards and trophies, one item will be missing, the one Lara was desperate to add to his collection - a World Cup winners' medal. Now he has announced his retirement without realising that dream after a lacklustre display by the World Cup hosts.

Lara, in his third spell as captain going into the tournament, failed to score a hundred in any of his 26 ODI innings last year.

"We played over 30 games last year and I always had the World Cup at the back of my mind," he said.

"If you look at our performances, you will see that there was a lot of experimenting, especially with the batting.

"We needed to find a formula for the World Cup. In one match, I batted at nine, so there was a plan. I am confident that the results of those experiments would be evident during the World Cup."

But, despite opening with a win over Pakistan, from there the tournament failed to take off for the hosts, whose 99-run victory over Bangladesh which preceded Lara's momentous announcement was too little too late as far as qualification for the semi-finals was concerned.

Lara was adamant before the tournament he would not quit all forms of the game, saying: "I am still scoring centuries in Test cricket.

"Physically, I feel well. When my body starts to complain then I would have reason to quit altogether. But I still feel I have a couple more runs in me at Test level."

With question marks over whether he would even have been selected for the summer Tests in England, perhaps Lara decided he would jump before he was pushed.