My hero, Herschelle Gibbs (bear with me, I am making a solid point here), has been a train wreck since 2006. Sure there have been fireworks here and there, but nothing great and it has been painful. Gibbs is not even in the same category as Brian Lara. As sad as it makes me to admit it, Lara is possibly the last West Indian link to a team that once used to send panic waves through the world of cricket. Of course much of that Lara aura was spent trying to carry West Indies on his shoulders and not really being successful. It wasn't his fault, or maybe it was. Whatever it is, if you can look past that, you will know that Lara remained Lara. A regular, batting beast.
Hence lies the problem. Lara's first comeback was a mini disaster. Mini because no one watched the ICL. But Lara followers will know that it was a disappointment of epic proportions. A one time hero had lost his reflexes and less than inept bowlers were conquering him with balls that even Lara's grandma could hit out of the park. This is by no means an exaggeration. If you have a hero and have seen him/her crumble, you will know that this is indeed how it feels.
Lara's second comeback will be with Surrey's T20 team. Considering the fact that he lost his 'Laraness' two years ago, I can hardly believe this is going to be a good thing. It hasn't been confirmed yet but I hope for his sakes he does not come back. It will be pretty devastating for fans to learn that Brian Lara is human after all. And I am pretty sure it will be positively heart-breaking for Lara to have such a line on his Wikipedia page:
"Lara came out of retirement to help rubbish Surrey in their T20 ventures but instead sucked up all their rubbishness and magnified it to a million. This loosely translates to, he scored 30 runs in 20 matches".
Okay, so that WAS an exaggeration. But if it does happen, can you imagine Brian Lara's profile page ending with that? That is possibly worse than having to watch Lara captain the West Indies.
Don't do it your Laraness. Let us remain forever in your glorious years.
3 comments:
I don't think I will cope with the sight of it. Watching Warney bowling too short and wide in the IPL is bad enough.
I know, what the hell happened to him? He was fine up until last year!
I think Lara is making a big mistake. As you mentioned about Jordan and Borg, we have one more recent example of Schumacher. Who is finding very difficult to cope with the new technologies. It was a real pain to see him racing.
The mind and body will find it difficult to turn back the clock and play.
Hope his stint didnt end in pain for every1.
Kanda
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