Former West Indies captain Brian Lara made a strong comment about the outstanding skills of his former teammate Carl Hooper. Lara, who is a famous player himself, said he was impressed by Hooper’s natural abilities and thought that neither he nor the great Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar could compare to Hooper’s natural talent. Both Tendulkar and Lara are considered some of the best batters in cricket history. Tendulkar holds the record for scoring the most runs in both Test matches (15,921) and One Day Internationals (18,426), while Lara holds the record for the highest individual scores in both Test cricket (400) and First-Class cricket (501). Even with their amazing records, Lara thinks Hooper’s natural talent was better than both of theirs.
“Carl was definitely one of the top players I’ve ever watched. I don’t think even Tendulkar and I could match his skill. When you look at Carl’s career, his stats are quite different when he played as a regular player compared to when he was a captain. As a captain, he scored nearly 50 on average, which shows he liked being in charge. It’s unfortunate that he only reached his full potential when he was a captain,” Lara wrote in his new book, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
Lara also mentioned that the famous West Indies batsman Vivian Richards had a special liking for Hooper. “Viv Richards never put someone down because he didn’t want them to be as great as him. His strictness was part of his personality, but he never wished for anyone to fail. That was just how he was. And, Viv really liked Carl. More than he liked me, for sure. But the way Viv expressed his affection didn’t connect with Carl,” Lara said.
In a recent conversation with The Daily Mail, Lara mentioned four cricketers from England and India whom he thinks might surpass his record of scoring 400 runs in a single Test match innings. He noted, “During my era, there were cricketers who either came close to or exceeded 300 runs in an innings – players like Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Sanath Jayasuriya. These players were known for their aggressive style.”
Lara continued, “Looking at the current players, especially in the England team, there are aggressive players like Zak Crawley and Harry Brook. In the Indian team, players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill come to mind. If they encounter the right conditions during a match, they could potentially break the records – both of them,” he concluded.
