ON THE RECORD

So Lara batted on. Well, if the Windies couldn't bowl England out in two days and two sessions, how likely was it they'd bowl them out in three days?

That said, last week I wrote:

Still, it's interesting Tubby Taylor declared on 334 whereas Lara batted on for the record. Speaks volumes, I reckon.

The implication being that Tubby Taylor -- for that matter, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting too -- play to win, whereas Lara plays for himself.

Say no more:

Ponting: Lara's record selfish

The Australian captain doubts whether Lara's magnificent 400 not out, made against England at Antigua last week, will ever be beaten because few skippers in world cricket are willing to jeopardise a winning position by allowing one batsman to spend so long at the crease.

Lara's quadruple century � the first in Test history, eclipsing Matthew Hayden's former world mark of 380 � was almost 13 hours in the making.

As captain, Lara could bat for as long as he liked ... and he did. His decision to keep going until after lunch on the third day, as the Windies amassed an unnecessarily healthy 5(dec)-751, left the hosts without enough time to win the Test.

Ponting said Australia's desire to secure victory as quickly as possible would make it difficult for any of the batsmen, himself included, to beat Lara's feat.

"It's hard to imagine an Australian player doing it, just because of the way we play our cricket. It's generally not the way we play," said Ponting.

"I've read some of the reports in the paper over the last couple of days about Lara's innings. Their whole first innings might have been geared around one individual performance and they could have let a Test match slip because of it.

"They ran out of time in the game � that's not the way the Australian team plays."

Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth last October took just over ten hours in a match Australia won by an innings and 175 runs early on the fifth day.

Ponting said then captain Steve Waugh's decision to let Hayden keep batting, in an effort to break Lara's previous world record of 375, was the exception to the team rule.

"It was a very rare thing what we did with that Zimbabwean Test match, for Matty to be able to bat for as long as he did and go on and make that big score," said Ponting.

"He was given the opportunity to go on and break Brian's record and he did that. He was going to be given another half an hour, or 20 minutes, to try to get to 400 but unfortunately he got out."

Ponting, Hayden, Lara and India's Sachin Tendulkar are the game's pre-eminent batsmen right now, but the Australian No.3 said he was only vaguely interested in individual records.

"It would be nice if you could be the world record holder but at the end of the day, as we've seen, it doesn't necessarily win you a Test match, which is what we're all about," said Ponting.

"Everyone will be chasing it, there's a record there now I'm sure a lot of batsmen around the world would like to have their name next to. Buut we'll have to wait and see how things pan out over the next few years."

Australia plays two Tests next month against lowly-ranked Zimbabwe which has a team in chaos.

Records, both team and personal, will be up for grabs.

Comments

[Adsy]

Too true that Lara played for himself and denied the West Indies the time to bowl out England and win the Test Match...

However I reckon that's exactly what West Indian cricket needed. In a strange way, the fact they lost the Test is irrelevant. Sure, from an Australian view, its silly to bat for that long and not give your bowlers the chance when they had possibly 200 runs more than they needed.

However in the record books, young Windies kids aren't going to go through them and see that the side drew a massively winnable game, but rather that their hero made a QUADRUPLE CENTURY. How many of them will be playing in the government yard in Trenchtown (sorry, obscure Marley reference...) or wherever they may be and they won't be saying "Oh, im the great captain Lara who sacrificed the record for his team" but "Oh im the great batsman Lara who made 400!" If this record stands for any length of time then a new group of champions may be swayed from other sports to try and emulate it, no matter what circumstances it was made under. And that can only be good for West Indies and world cricket.

For that fact, how many Aussie kids could reel off the fact that Taylor finished on 334 not out and stopped on Bradman's high score for the sake of respect of the great man compared to the kids who could say that they remember Hados making 380 against a second rate Zimbabwe side?

For the sake of the game, for better or for worse, records need to continually be broken for the future prosperity of cricket.

[D`Anerah[IW]]

Erm who is Tubby Taylor? Sounds like a character from the Simpsons.

Its play off time! Go Maple Leafs!

[Big Ramifications]

>>>Ponting said then captain Steve Waugh's decision to let Hayden keep batting, in an effort to break Lara's previous world record of 375, was the exception to the team rule.

>>>"It was a very rare thing what we did with that Zimbabwean Test match, for Matty to be able to bat for as long as he did and go on and make that big score," said Ponting.

So what's to say there won't be another "exception" in the future?

I'm sorry, Ponting doesn't strike me as being too bright. That whole diatribe just sounded like a bitch session to me.

[Tony.T]

Sorry ... aahhhhhh ha ha ha ... you're not going to slip an "obscure Marley reference" past me that easily, Ads.

In fact it's the opening line from what's -- to me at any rate -- Bob Marley's only good album and for some reason , just like you did, I keep reciting it. Dunno why, it's catchy I guess.

"This I wanna tellll you is a Trenchtown Experience, all the way from Trenchtown Jamaica ... Bob Marley and the Wailers ... C'MON"

One good thing about music, when it hits you feel ok..."

Oooh yeah.

And Big, I'm inclined to agree with you about Ponting's inconsistencies. Pretty silly from where I'm sitting. Although I wouldn't be as trenchtown ... err ... trenchant in my criticisms because I'm ambivalent as to whether Lara should or shouldn't have gone for the record.

Ice Hockey bites, D. Tubby Taylor's a gum chewing machine.

[Big Ramifications]

Wasn't Tubby Taylor the larger of the two atomic bombs that got dropped on Japan?

[Tony.T]

Naaa, that was Short Black.

[Adsy]

"So hit me with music..."

Totally agree, quite catchy and his only really consistent album. Most of them have one, perhaps two good songs, but this album is probably his best.

I wonder if Lara listens to B.M???

[Tony.T]

Hopefully he's got better taste. Lynton Kwesi Johnston, Burning Spear and best of all Toots and the Maytals. But probably not.

He probably gets off on faux reggae like Bobby McFerrin and Relax With Max.

[Emery]

Like most Trinis he likes Calypso and Soca. For your education there are over 1000 miles of ocean between Trinidad and Jamaica.

[Tony.T]

What's Soca, Emery? And I don't understand your reference to Trinidad and Jamaica. Don't they play raggae in Trinidad?