Stephen Vasciannie OH! DID you notice? The king has returned to his throne, by scoring 400 runs at one time. Against an English team whose bowlers had established dominance over the West Indies throughout the Test series, Brian Lara responded with brilliance, tenacity, flair and endurance. To bring his score from 374 to 380, he slapped Batty over the fence for six. To reclaim his world record, he deftly turned another delivery around the corner for four. This was a most extraordinary feat by one of us, a man from Trinidad and Tobago, representing us, and strengthening us.
Others may want to reflect on the statistics of the performance, but the thing that strikes me most was the sheer audacity of it all. Many of us grew up hearing about the record set by Sir Garfield Sobers in the Third Test between the West Indies and Pakistan at Sabina Park: 365 not out, one of us, holding the most glorious record in cricket, and doing so for 36 years. Then, along comes another one of us, a young man with an appetite for runs, to take the record.
Now here is the audacity part. The Lara record was surpassed by Matthew Hayden, and although we could not honestly say "Matthew Who?", many West Indians were quietly broken-hearted. The record that had been in our hands for near to half a century had passed to an opener from afar. Perhaps not to return home for another 50 years, some may reasonably have thought; for batsmen tend to get dizzy and tired by the time they touch 250 or thereabouts.
TAKE THAT!
And yet still, Lara just turns around, and a few months after losing his record, he simply takes it back. "You have challenged me, Mr. Hayden, well take that! Have you no respect for class?" Brian Lara seemed to be saying last week.
So, this is a time for all round celebration in the wee islands we call home (and the not so wee Guyana, which, with all its magnificent rivers, is almost an island too). It is a time to praise genius, to reflect on the nature of natural talent and, specifically, to consider how a small piece of wood, when placed in the hands of some cricketers, can become an unmatched instrument of power and artistry.
Michael Manley in his 'A History of West Indies Cricket' (1988, 1st edition) reminds us at page 133 that "Wisden, not prone to hyperbole, applied the word 'monumental' to Sobers' performance" in 1958. Without wishing to detract from Sobers, or from Hayden, I believe Wisden will need to search the dictionaries more carefully for appropriate adjectives to describe both 'Sobers plus 10' in 1994, and 'Sobers plus 35 not out' in 2004.
QUALIFIED JOY
But at the time for celebration, am I right in thinking that the jubilation among some Jamaicans is qualified? Ten years ago, Dennis Duncan, a man who took catches in the slips to the bowling of Michael Holding on KC's Sunlight Team in the 1970s, was full of enthusiasm at the prospect that Brian Lara was on the verge of the world record. This time around, with Lara again on the verge, Duncan was more measured in his analysis: has Lara's desire to break the record held back the team in this match? Did he bat too slowly? My brother, it seems, has second thoughts about Lara.
And, again, with Lara on the verge, Michael Holding himself seemed to have a tone of reservation in his voice. The essence of Holding's position at close of play, on the evening before the morning after, was that Lara's triple century in 2004 was not as impressive as his triple century in 1994. This, I think, amounts to damning the king with faint praise. Why detract from a chanceless innings at the point of its full flowering, by holding to a subjective assessment of an outstanding performance a decade earlier?
The greatest newspaper in the Outer Empire may also have contributed slightly to the process of qualifying our happiness over Lara's achievement. On the morning of April 12, with Lara on the verge, the main headline on The Gleaner's front page was about another distinguished son, the lightning-fast Mr. Bolt. Bolt had broken the World Junior Record for the 200 metres: a wonderful achievement, but is it quite on the same level as Lara becoming only the second man to score two triple centuries? Or is Bolt's bolt really more newsworthy than the fact that Lara was standing, for the second time at last, at the door of cricket's greatest record?
Following Lara's record 400, The Gleaner's cartoonist took the matter further by implying that the Jamaican people were more impressed with Bolt's achievement than Lara's. There shouldn't really have to be a comparison, but if we must make it, it is 'cartoonish' indeed to argue that the World Junior record can match 400 not out in a Test match.
I could go on. One radio presenter wanted to make much of the fact that Lara may, please note, may, have given a chance at 350 plus. Another was hard-pressed to reconcile Lara's 400 with the presenter's view, given about a week earlier, that Lara's eyesight appeared to be diminished. Various analysts were also too anxious and too keen to note at the time of triumph that this innings did not necessarily make Lara a good captain; and some entrenched anti-Laralistas added that the 400 was too late to serve any useful purpose.
My brother, my bowling hero, my editor: may I suggest that we just enjoy the victory of the greatest batsman on Earth or Mars?!
Stephen Vasciannie is Professor of International Law and head, Department of Government at UWI. He is also a consultant in the Attorney-General's chambers.
