"I apologise, Vaibhav, but if you look at how West Indies handled Brian Lara… he was a generational talent, everyone knew," Brathwaite said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show after Sooryavanshi's 37-ball 103 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) went in vain against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). "So what did West Indies do? They put him in the mix with Viv Richards and what not, but he didn't play [international cricket]. That was a different time with loads of tour games, and he cut his teeth with the senior players without having made his debut. And then we know how his career went once he debuted.

This explains why the caribbean is such a mess. our young people know nothing about even recent history. Brian lara was handled exceptionally poorly. In fact it was so bad, at one point, both Michael Holding and Garfield Sobers openly questioned why lara was not being picked in the final xi.

Whatever else transpires during the upcoming three-month sojourn in the Caribbean, one feature is more or less guaranteed, and it will not bring joy to the hearts of the English bowlers. The sublime skills of Trinidadian Brian Lara, already hailed as a batting genius at the tender age of 24, will undoubtedly adorn what promises to be an enthralling series.

The arrival of the prodigal son may have been tardy, but the 5 ft 5 ins left-hander is now firmly established on the world stage, an icon to all those who purr at the aesthetics of batsmanship. The West Indies selectors, wavering despite an increasingly fragile middle order, delayed his consolidation at Test level for what seemed an interminable age to most Caribbean cognoscenti.

In the 1991 domestic season, for instance, he amassed 627 runs in five matches, including six consecutive fifties, a tournament record which Desmond Haynes actually surpassed only a week later. During the Jamaica match, on an unpredictable surface at Sabina Park, he made 122 and 87, eliciting a cogent remark from radio commentator Michael Holding: "I'd pick Lara first for the Test team, then look for 10 others."

BC Pires, had this to say about Viv's treatment of Brian Lara

On the night of April 18 1994, the day of the 375, Brian Lara presented a West Indies Players' Association award to his former captain Vivian Richards. It was one of the most delicious of the myriad slices of irony that West Indies cricket regularly serves up: everyone watching knew that Richards, as captain, had done everything he could to keep Lara out of the crease when he could no longer keep him out of the side. Even Lara, at his most magnanimous, could not sidestep a truth every observer felt as keenly as his new world record.

">RTN has disappointed me many times but this has to take the biscuit. and to say it with a straight face is even more bemusing. The IPL audience doesen't know much about cricket outside their borders, harsha bhogle, tendulkar, dravid and ravi shastri excluded, but anybody who grew up in the 90s would know how much utter hogwash this is

@Jumpstart

For once I agree with you.

😂😂😂

On a serious note.

Although Lara was in the various squads,

he was kept out of the final 11 by Sir Viv.

Rumors at the time was that Viv stated that he did

want a rival for him as best batsman.

Imagine Keith Arthurton playing ahead of Lara.

Lara was mistreated by Viv and co.

@TanteMerle

lol Tellin yuh. I have a video made by Channel 9( Packer’s television station) which showed the entires series highlights of the 1991 series between WI and Australia. Wes Hall, who was manager of the team, said that the WI middle order had been weak for the last five or six years, which would take us back to 1985 or 1986…..which is when Clive, Larry Gomes and co retired. The bowling replenished. The batting never did between their retirements and 1991. In fact the same players making hundreds in 1986: greenidge, Haynes, Richardson were the same people making hundreds in 1991(Viv’s last century was in 1989) and WI would have lost that series if it weren’t for big hundreds by Richardson in the Guyana test and Greenidge’s last hundred(226) in the fourth test. RTN talking utter nonsense here.

Kieth athurton aka Mr binary

goes back to a massive issue with our young people. They don’t even know recent history but are always willing to offer their opinion on historical matters to look intelligent. And they end up looking foolish to people who know and worse, end up spreading misinformation to those who don’t and not going to check. That’s why among some West Indians, the idea that Africans migrated here has taken root which again is total and utter BS

@Jumpstart

@TanteMerle

Two things informed me regarding The Young Prince.

Becca wrote an article -Lara From The Top Drawer.

Watching TNT go for quick runs at Bina and Lara with great ease depositing Patto on The Kingston Club roof! We started wondering how Arthurton was playing ahead of him.

@TanteMerle

Viv to me seemed to be a very insecure person, and the stories that have come out since from both Lara and others like Carlisle Best have simply reinforced that image. I could be wrong but it’s the image I get

@Brerzerk

Politics nah. The same politics that destroyed Gayle’s potentially champion side and removed our best captain since Clive Lloyd. Yes. I am saying and have always said Chris Gayle was our best captain since Clive Lloyd. And I make no apologies about that

@TanteMerle

The unofficial autobiography on Lara by a gentleman from New Zealand who was married to a West Indian said one of the players on tour told him that one of the senior players in the team said Lara was only picked because Joey Carew was a selector. As told a friend, the Indian audience does know much about cricket outside of India, but there are people in the know in India who were/are either friends of Lara or were playing or were in cricket circles around that time, people like tendulkar, harsha bhogle, Ravi Shastri, rahul dravid and hopefully they’ll inform management privately that the Lara treatment is absolutely no way to treat a young batting genius and that Carlos talking absolute rubbish here. I’m surprised he didn’t tell the panel that Virat Kohli should throw Sooryavanshi’s kit outside the dressing room to show him how cold professional sport is. What a dweeb

"I apologise, Vaibhav, but if you look at how West Indies handled Brian Lara… he was a generational talent, everyone knew," Brathwaite said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show after Sooryavanshi's 37-ball 103 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) went in vain against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). "So what did West Indies do? They put him in the mix with Viv Richards and what not, but he didn't play [international cricket]. That was a different time with loads of tour games, and he cut his teeth with the senior players without having made his debut. And then we know how his career went once he debuted.

if the above is all or the main points Carlos employed in his assertion, he is factually correct. Whether Lara was unfairly kept out of the team or not and by whom were not commented upon by Carlos.

if so this is nothing burger by an ignorant Tit

@sudden

you and VOT are the same., not even bajans agreeing with you on this one homes

sodden

What do you know about cricket ? sheesh

Your girth is bigger than Cornwall and you can't see your feet standing up.

I see why you mention "burger" was that on Cheffettes menu today?😳

@sudden

allyuh was protesting for a mediocre talent like anderson cummins who wasn't even fully interested in cricket. if lara was bajan with his level of otherworldly brilliance, bet yuh bottom dollar if they, whether is viv or some dot selector didn't want tpop pick him, that undefeated team would have split in two because greenidge, haynes and maco wasn't taking that

@Jumpstart

Show me where in that excerpt Carlos opined on whether Lara was treated unfairly or not

@sudden

I trying to understand the issue.

@natty_forever

There is none

just a tit being a tit

@sudden

he's opining that somehow lara's introduction to international cricket was beneficial, and should be imitated by the indian cricket officials

So what did West Indies do? They put him in the mix with Viv Richards and what not, but he didn't play [international cricket]. That was a different time with loads of tour games, and he cut his teeth with the senior players without having made his debut. And then we know how his career went once he debuted.

Which is very contrary to what everyone who wasn't viv thought. Not that anybody whose name isn't viv richards or carlos brathwaite thought there was any kind of strategy in in it, exemplified by the picking of inferior talents like keith athurton. Compare that to sachin tendulkar, who ironically faced the same attack lara faced on debut and wasn't as successful, but was placed in an indian team with the likes of kapil dev, an icc hall of fame inductee, ravi shastri, one of the best allrounders of the 1980s, mohammed azharuddin, the most skillful of the indian batsmen from the late 80s to the mid 90s. Sachin was 16 by the time he debuted by the way.

So from carlos' two paragraphs of mess we can glean three things

1. he believes keeping brian lara out of WI cricket from 21 to 24 was beneficial, despite the disagreement of most cricket followers of that time
2. that it was strategic, which no one not named viv richards or carlos brathwaite believes
3. 3. he believes this is the right strategy to be used of sooryavanshi.

proof that this was just misinformed bs is that lara made 44 against the 2nd best attack in world cricket at the time...waqar and wasim, imran and abdul qadir, each one of them, including 19 year old waqar already an international star, and could not make his way into a west indian test side for the next two test series against australia and england....and australia and england had far, far inferior attacks to that pakistan attack, all of who are in the icc hall of fame along with brian charles himself