World Wide News of Celebrities

Brian lara was born in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago a West Indian cricketer, one of the sport's most renowned contemporary players. The compact left-handed batsman is the record holder for most runs scored in an innings in both Test (international) and first-class cricket.

One of a family of 11, a natural athlete, and a member of the national under-(age)14 football (soccer) team, Lara was expected from an early age to be the next great West Indian cricketer. He was first selected for the West Indies national team in 1990 at age 21, but he did not make his mark until 1994, when he broke the two most coveted batting records in cricket, scoring 375 runs against England (besting Sir Garfield Sobers's 36-year-old record) and 501 runs (not out) for Warwickshire, his English county team. In 2004 Lara then became the first player to retake the Test batting record when his 400 runs (not out) against England surpassed the 380 runs posted by Australian Matthew Hayden in 2003.Between these Herculean feats, Lara sometimes struggled to perform at the level expected of him, and some questioned his dedication to the sport. Likewise, under his captaincy the record of the West Indies national team was undistinguished. However, there is no doubt that he ranks with the likes of Sobers, Sir Don Bradman, Clive Lloyd, and Sir Viv Richards as among cricket's greatest batsmen.

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 Leseal 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 (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's dad Joey Carew was very instrumental in his cricketing & personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at the Angostura ? Bitters 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 for the West Indies 'B' team in Zimbabwe, a side that included several players with Test experience. 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 & 6.

Lara loves carnivals, Chinese & Italian foods, and is known to be a practical jokester.