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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The Brian Lara the cricket world is seeing today is not the flamboyant player he once was, but a man determined to see West Indies cricket prosper and win Test matches.

What has made Lara's batting suddenly look so portentous, is the little bit of advice he got from former West Indies all-round great Sir Garfield Sobers.

"My batting has changed only in the last few weeks. I've worked on a few things in the camp back in Jamaica. I remember speaking to Sir Gary and he said 'you need to come from behind the ball. You need to get your hands coming from behind the ball and to try and stop chopping across the line'," said Lara.

"I worked on that a lot and I think looking back, I think it's played a very very big part in my batting. You can work on a lot of different things and you can tell if it's working or not. This has played a very big part in it," he said.

"It has also added to my discipline. Knowing that my technique is improving I don't need to take chances. I am defending the ball well. I normally score very quickly. Now I don't have to worry about making shots. It has helped my patience.

"Compared to the first Test match where I swept at everything, now I am actually looking at the ball coming out of (Muttiah) Muralitharan's hand, and I try my best to read which way the ball is going. I am a lot more comfortable now against Murali," Lara said.

The gifted left-hander also referred to as the Prince of Trinidad rated his century at the SSC more than the one he scored at Galle in the first Test. "This innings pleases me more than the 178 I scored in Galle, because I have started to read Murali. If you read him you don't need to play the cross-batted shots," said Lara.

"Going into the fifth innings in this series and to keep scoring runs is not something that I am accustomed to. I normally get big scores and lots of low scores throughout the series; I wanted to in this series get, fifties after fifties and some hundreds. I was able to do that in this Test match and if I get a next innings, I don't think I am going to rest on my laurels, I am gonna go out and try again to get to some more runs," he said.

Lara came out to bat with West Indies precariously placed at 17 for 2 and went on to dominate the rest of the innings with a workmanlike century that gave West Indies the platform on which to build on an imposing total.

"I got a couple of easy balls to score off early on to get rid of the butterflies think assessing the pitch it was very good to bat on and if you spend time out there, you are able to get among the runs. That's what I did," he said.

During his innings Lara passed two milestones, getting past 7000 runs in his illustrious Test career and also passing the 500-run mark in the current Test series.

Lara became the sixth West Indian to pass 7,000 Test runs and he said he was aiming to become the highest scorer for the West Indies by the time he retires.

He is aiming at Sir Viv Richards' aggregate of 8540 from 117 Tests (182 innings) which is the highest by a West Indies batsman in Test cricket. Lara playing in his 83rd Test (146th innings) knows he has some way to go before achieving that. "I want to score the most runs for West Indies in Test cricket. I know that's about 1400 1500 runs away from Viv Richards, still a long way off. When he played, he batted once a majority of times and West Indies won many Test matches. He's a great player, no comparison at all. But it will be nice to edge closer and closer to these great players. It's nice to be among them in their company," said Lara.

By crossing the 7,000-run mark Lara is presently in the illustrious company of former West Indian greats like Richards, Sobers (8032 from 93 Tests 160 inns), Gordon Greenidge (7558 from 108 Tests 185 inns), Clive Lloyd (7515 from 110 Tests 175 inns) and Desmond Haynes (7487 from 116 Tests - 202 inns). "Getting past 500 runs in the series was also a special occasion. I wanted to get runs on this particular tour. I really wanted to be as consistent as possible. That's what I was able to do in this series. I wanted to get 500 runs and I achieved it with an innings to spare. But it doesn't end here. I hope I can go and get some more. We've got Test matches against Pakistan, India, New Zealand and I want to maintain the form. Hopefully, I can get my average above 50 and keep it there for a long time," said Lara.

"This has been my most consistent performance since 1995 against England when I scored three centuries in a row. In that series I didn't do very well in the first three Tests. The last three I played pretty well. But in this Test series from beginning to end it's been very good. I have never averaged over a 100 in a Test series and I like to do it here," he said.

Lara came to Sri Lanka with a Test career average of 47, and after his monumental innings at the SSC has pushed it above 50 where he wants it to be.

Prior to the tour he was written off by some of the past West Indian players as well past his best.

But Lara who is only 32 years old has proved a point that the best years are still ahead of him with his sterling performances in the current Sri Lankan tour where his scores in the Test series have been a staggering 178, 40, 72, 45 and 178 (n.o.) gives him a total of 515 runs and an average of 128.75 at the end of the first day of the SSC Test. "Everybody is entitled to their opinion, sorry it had to be ex-cricketers. But these guys have played the game and they know what they are talking about. I've got to play my game. I've gotta be able to go out and enjoy myself and do what I know I can do best. That's bat and score runs," said Lara hitting out at critics.

"I want to prove a point where we can go out and win Test matches. Things haven't worked out for us. In the last 24 or so Test matches away from home, we've lost closer to 20. That's what we wanna get right. We want to get on the road and win matches. We won't be able to prove that point in this series, but hopefully, this Test match we can do it," he said.

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