‘They will hail him as the new Messiah, until the next Armageddon’

PERFECT RESPONSE TO DOUBTERS

There were barely concealed mutterings that Lara should have called a halt after the record but before the 400 since no man is bigger than the game, and the game was there to be won. For all its merits, that argument fails to consider what this achievement will mean to the people of the Caribbean.
(THE INDEPENDENT)

WINDIES FIND TIME TO SMILE AGAIN

The elevating effect of Brian Lara’s remarkable innings could be witnessed all around the Recreation Ground here yesterday. For the first time in the series, West Indian faces were wreathed in smiles, their voices no longer drowned out by the deafening, triumphal chants of the Barmy Army and their accomplices.The hastily scribbled sign over on the popular side that stated “Our wounds have been healed” was stretching the point in suggesting that one innings, even as monumental as Lara’s, had suddenly put right all the problems that bedevil West Indies cricket. What it cannot and, as far as the administrators are concerned, should not be allowed to do is camouflage the weaknesses that continue to make the team so dependent on Lara’s runs.
(TONY COZIER, THE INDEPENDENT)

LARA REIGNS AGAIN

Brian Lara, as a personality, has had his share of criticisms and even now his leadership ability remains open to question. But all this pales against his demonstrated ability as a batsman. In a game whose batsmen define its entertainment value he has had few parallels and like most of the great ones he has the uncanny ability to summon the genie of his genius out of the lamp just when the times seem to be the most darkest. In congratulating him we hope that the West Indian family takes heart from his example and both individually and as a collective seek to meet their challenges with courage and, yes, with class.
(TRINIDAD & TOBAGO EXPRESS)

IT’S JUST SURREAL

When you take into consideration what transpired up to this innings — his poor form, the burden of the team, three-nil down in the series — and to come up with an innings of this nature, because it took more than physical fitness to go through this…It’s a monumental innings. It’s just surreal.
(IAN BISHOP)

ONLY LARA CAN DO IT

I never expected Lara himself to go back and break Matthew Hayden’s record. I know batting for that length of time is a young man’s game. And Brian Lara at 34 just shows you how much he had to concentrate, how much he had to work hard. Everyone will say it’s a nice, flat bating pitch, and we all agree to that. But put 25 batsmen out there under the same circumstances, and only one of the 25 would get 400 and that is Lara.
(MICHAEL HOLDING)