This year marks 17 years since Bri­an Charles Lara broke the world record for the high­est Test score when he eclipsed Aus­tralia’s Matthew Hay­den 380 (vs Zim­bab­we, 2003) with 400 not out against Eng­land in An­tigua 2004.

It was the sec­ond time Lara had bro­ken the record af­ter eclips­ing Garfield Sobers 36-year-old record of 365 not out (against Pak­istan in 1958) with 375 against Eng­land in An­tigua in 1994.

Lara al­so holds the world record for the high­est in­di­vid­ual first-class score of 501 not out scored 27 years ago for War­wick­shire vs Durham,1994. The pre­vi­ous 35-year-old record was 499 scored by Pak­istan’s Hanif Mo­hammed in 1959.

While these two world records are no­to­ri­ous enough to mea­sure Lara’s su­perb bat­ting skills, it is worth­while to dis­sect his Test records to get a greater ap­pre­ci­a­tion of this phe­nom­e­nal Trin­bag­on­ian and West In­di­an crick­eter.

Lara's Test ca­reer spanned 16 years (1990-2006). He played 131 match­es, 232 in­nings, 6 not outs, scored 11,953 runs at an av­er­age of 52.88 with a strike rate of 60.51 with 34 100s, 48 50s and 164 catch­es.

In terms of all time Test crick­et, some of his key sta­tis­tics are:

- Ranked sev­enth high­est runs scor­er (11,953) be­hind Sachin Ten­dulkar 15, 921 (200 match­es); Ricky Point­ing 13, 3778 (168 match­es); Jacques Kallis 13,289 (166 match­es); Rahul Dravid 13, 288 (164 match­es); Alas­tair Cook 12, 472; and Ku­mar San­gakkara 12, 400 (134 match­es).

- Tied for sixth with You­nis Khan, Sunil Gavaskar, and Ma­hela Jayawar­dene for most cen­turies (34) be­hind Sachin Ten­dulkar 51, Jacques Kallis 45, Ricky Point­ing 41, Ku­mar San­gakkara 38 and Rahul Dravid 36.

- Ranked third for dou­ble cen­turies (9) be­hind Don Brad­man (12) and Ku­mar San­gakkara (9).

- Tied with Don Brad­man, Christo­pher Gayle and Viren­der Se­hwag for most triple

cen­turies (2).

- Ranked 25 th in over­all bat­ting av­er­ages (52.88). Don Brad­man has the high­est av­er­age (99.94). In terms of West In­di­an bat­ters, ranked sixth be­hind George Headley 60.83; Ever­ton Weekes 58.61; Garfield Sobers 57.40; Clyde Wal­cott 56.80 and Char­lie Davis 54.20.

- Most runs (28) scored in a Test over (466444) off Robin Pe­ter­son, WI vs South Africa 2003-04.

- Ranked third in the num­ber of fours (1559) be­hind Sachin Ten­dulkar (2059) and Rahul Dravid (1654).

- Ranked sixth in the all-time list of six­es (88) be­hind Bren­don Mc­Cul­lum (107); Adam Gilchrist (100); Chris Gayle (98); Jacques Kallis (97) and Viren­der Se­hwag (91).

- Ranked 10 th most runs in a Test se­ries (798) against Eng­land 1993-94.

- Sec­ond high­est runs in a three-Test se­ries (688) vs Sri Lan­ka 2001-02 be­hind Gra­ham Gooch (752) vs Eng­land 1990.

- Most runs in a Test in­nings by a cap­tain- 400 not out vs Eng­land 1994.

- Ninth in catch­es (164) be­hind Rahul Dravid (210); Ma­hela Jayawar­dene (205); Jacques Kallis (200); Ricky Point­ing (196); Mark Waugh (181); Alas­tair Cook (175) and Stephen Flem­ing (171) and Graeme Smith (169).

- Among West In­di­an bat­ters, Lara has the high­est ag­gre­gate Test runs (11953); most cen­turies (34); and sec­ond high­est 50s (48) be­hind Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul (66).

- He has the fourth high­est runs in a Test se­ries among West In­dies bat­ters with 798 against Eng­land, 1994. He trails Vi­vian Richards 829 vs Eng­land, 1976; Clyde Wal­cott 827 vs Aus­tralia 1955 and Garfield Sobers 824 vs Pak­istan 1958.

- Third most capped West In­di­an af­ter Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul (164) and Court­ney Walsh (132).

- Third in num­ber of times (47) cap­tained the West In­dies be­hind Clive Lloyd (74) and Vi­vian Richards (50).

It is said that form is tem­po­rary and class is per­ma­nent, Lara’s Test record is ex­em­plary of pure CLASS! He is a liv­ing leg­end of crick­et.