Brian Lara was born in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago. He is 10th in a family of 11 children. His dad Bunty Lara passed away in 1988. His mother Pearl Lara suffered from cancer and died in January 2002. He is also the father of an eight-year-old daughter called Sydney with Trinidadian model Leasel Rovedas.
From an early age, Lara showed precocious talent. His father Bunty and one of his older sisters were first to recognize young Brian’s exceptional batting talents and enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic only at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in proper batting techniques.
Lara’s first school was St. Josephs Roman Catholic primary. Then he went to San Juan secondary, but played no cricket there. A year later, fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College. He moved in with his fellow Trinidadian Test player Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain. Michael’s dad Joey Carew was very instrumental in his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at the Angostura Ltd. in Marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides, but cricket was always the path to recognition in Trinidad in those times. Lara wanted to emulate his idols—Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and the left-handed Roy Fredericks.
Lara began his cricket career while at school in Fatima College. When he was 14, he played in the under-16 and First Divisions of national schoolboys’ cricket. He amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys’ league that year at an astounding average of 126.16 per innings. Immediately afterwards he was selected for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under 19 youth tournament. In 1984, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 Test Cricket. 1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when he broke the West Indies youth batting record. In January, 1988, Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Barbados. The Bajan attack contained Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall. Lara batted nearly a full day and made 92.
Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup. His innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the 1988-89 Indians elevated Lara’s reputation even further. He was selected for the Port of Spain Test of that season. He did not play, however, and at the same time suffered the personal setback of the death of his father. In 1989, he captained West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145 suns. In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago’s youngest ever captain and won the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 and 6.
Today Lara is the only batsman in test cricket to scrore 400 runs in an inning and he still batted soundly and eyed on Wold Cup. There is no need to define other records of Lara because he and records are synonyms.
Lara loves carnivals, Chinese and Italian foods, and is known to be a practical jokester.
