Brian Lara, the early days - before the legend
Tue, Mar 31, '20
Diego Maradona or Michael Jordan slowly progress to iconic status.
For those of us who lived in Trinidad & Tobago in the nineteen seventies and eighties, some were lucky to see the evolution of a young Brian Charles Lara before becoming the Prince of Port of Spain.
I have travelled the world and nothing can turn a conversation on its head like saying you know Brian Lara. I have received discounts from restaurants and even tours of hotels letting me know that “Brian is very welcome.”
I remember the first time I saw him, it was September, 1981 and I looked over at a Form I class. I saw this very short fellow and were it not for the school uniform, I would have sworn he was six years old. He was well under five feet.
The following week, a student stopped me in the inner court of the school and pointed to him, “Bhoolai, you see that little fellah. His name is Brian Lara and he played for the TT U-12 Football Team.” I thought to myself, that short man must be good.
The following term was cricket season. Fatima College consistently had one of the best school teams in the country in those days. I walked past the nets and there was young Lara constantly chatting away as he faced the best U-14 bowlers. He then
put on the gloves and went behind the stumps. There was only five feet or so between the stumps and a brick wall so you
had to know how to catch that ball from the fast bowlers. He was unperturbed, still talking away. I thought, he can play cricket too.
For the unacquainted, it may surprise them that Brian represented TT in three sports, football, cricket and table tennis.
One of his teammates on both the football and cricket Under 12 steam was Dwight Yorke who would go on to win the Treble with Manchester United in 1999. Dwight was a more than competent opening batsman/wicketkeeper.
During his Giants and Colts years, Lara opened the batting and was the first choice wicketkeeper. Whilst still in Form III,
he was brought up to the First Eleven, considering that there were six players on the team that would go on to play for the TT Youth team (David Carew, Gregory and Barry Davis, Scott Rodriguez, Nicholas Gomez and Nicholas Govia) that was quite an accomplishment.
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