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West Indies Honours and Achievements
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Brian Lara is a former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. He was a skilled batsman, and was known for his ability to bat for long and high-scoring innings.[1] From his debut in international cricket in 1990 to his retirement in 2007, Lara scored 11,953 runs in Tests and 10,405 in One Day Internationals (ODI), accumulating a total of 53 centuries.[2] His accomplishments with the bat saw him chosen as the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year in 1994,[3] as well as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1995.[4]
[5] Lara scored a Test century for the first time in his fifth Test match in 1993 against Australia.[6] His score of 277 in that match is the fourth-highest maiden century in Test history.[7] The 375 he made against England in 1994 was the highest individual Test score for nine years, until Matthew Hayden surpassed it in 2003.[8] Lara regained the world record in 2004 when he made an unbeaten 400, once again against England.[9] It is also the only quadruple century in Test cricket.[10] The unbeaten 153 he scored against Australia in 1999 was rated as the second-best Test innings of all time by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2001.[11][12] He has scored more than 200 runs on nine occasions, the highest after Donald Bradman[13][14] and Kumar Sangakkara Alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle, he is one of four batsmen who have scored triple centuries on two occasions.[15] Lara scored 34 centuries during his Test career, the highest number by a West Indian player. He is ranked sixth for the highest number of centuries in a career along with Mahela Jayawardene, Sunil Gavaskar and Younis Khan, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Rahul Dravid.[16]
Lara's first ODI century came more than two years after his debut match, when he scored 128 against Pakistan.[17] His career best is 169 runs made against Sri Lanka in 1995. It is also the third highest individual score by a West Indian batsman.[18] The 117 he made against Bangladesh in 1999 is the fifth fastest century in ODI cricket. It was made in 45 balls at a strike rate of 188.70, reaching the boundary on eighteen occasions and clearing it on four.[19] During his career, he scored more than 150 runs on three occasions. By the time of his retirement, he had scored 19 centuries in ODI matches.[20] This is the second highest number of centuries scored by a single batsman for the West Indies, a record that Chris Gayle surpassed.[21]