Brian Lara Profile – ICC Ranking, Age, Career Info & Stats
Some batters are remembered for how many runs they scored. Brian Lara is remembered for how many he scored at once. This Brian Lara profile covers the full picture — his age, his peak ICC ranking, his Test and ODI statistics, the two world records that still stand, and the questions people most often ask about him.
Lara played 131 Tests and 299 one-day internationals for the West Indies between 1990 and 2007, scored 11,953 Test runs and 10,405 ODI runs, and left the game holding both the highest individual score in Test cricket and the highest in first-class cricket. More than two decades later, nobody has taken either record from him.
He batted left-handed with a backlift so high it looked like an affectation until the ball left the middle of the bat. He was not a metronome. He was a batter who, on his day, could decide a Test match on his own — and did, repeatedly, for a West Indies side that spent most of his career being outgunned.
Brian Lara Profile – Personal Information
| Full name | Brian Charles Lara |
|---|---|
| Popular name | Brian Lara; nicknamed “The Prince of Port of Spain”, or simply “The Prince” |
| Date of birth | 2 May 1969 |
| Age | 57 (as of 28 October 2026) |
| Birthplace | Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Nationality | Trinidadian |
| Country represented | West Indies |
| Batting style | Left-handed |
| Bowling style | Right-arm leg break (occasional) |
| Height | 5 ft 8 in |
| Playing role | Top-order batter; former West Indies captain |
| Test debut | 6 December 1990 v Pakistan, Lahore (West Indies cap 196) |
| ODI debut | 9 November 1990 v Pakistan, Karachi (West Indies cap 59) |
| Final Test | 27 November 2006 v Pakistan |
| Final ODI | 21 April 2007 v England, 2007 World Cup |
| Test highest score | 400 not out v England, St John’s, 2004 — a world record |
| ODI highest score | 169 v Sri Lanka, Sharjah, 1995 |
| First-class highest score | 501 not out, Warwickshire v Durham, Edgbaston, 1994 — a world record |
| Major records | Highest individual Test innings; highest individual first-class innings; only batter to reclaim the Test record after losing it |
| Jersey number | Not reliably documented — see the note below |
| Teams represented | West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, Warwickshire, Northern Transvaal, Southern Rocks, Mumbai Champs (ICL), ICC World XI, Marylebone Cricket Club, West Indies Legends |
| Current role | Performance mentor, Cricket West Indies (appointed January 2023) |
| Honours | ICC Hall of Fame (2012); Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World (1994, 1995); Wisden Cricketer of the Year (1995); Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (2009); Honorary Life Member of the MCC (2013) |
A note on the jersey number. You will find several websites confidently printing a squad number for Lara. None of them cites a source. West Indies did not use shirt numbers for most of his Test career, and numbered ODI shirts arrived late in it. Rather than invent one, this profile records it as not reliably documented.
Who Is Brian Lara?
Brian Lara is a retired cricketer from Trinidad and Tobago who played international cricket for the West Indies. If you are asking which country does Brian Lara represent, the answer has two parts that often get confused: he was born in and is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, but internationally he played for the West Indies, the combined team that represents fifteen Caribbean territories.
So “where is Brian Lara from” has a precise answer — Santa Cruz, a village in the Northern Range valley just outside Port of Spain — and a broader one. He is Caribbean, and he carried the hopes of the whole region for the better part of two decades.
He was one of eleven children. His father, Bunty, enrolled him at the Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six, which is where the technique that later looked so unorthodox was actually built. He captained Trinidad and Tobago at twenty, becoming the youngest captain in the team’s history and winning the Geddes Grant Shield in his first season in charge.
What made him internationally famous was not gradual. In 1994, in the space of seven weeks, he broke the world record for the highest Test innings and then the world record for the highest first-class innings. He was twenty-four.
Brian Lara Age and Early Life
Brian Lara was born on 2 May 1969, which makes him 57 years old as of October 2026.
He grew up in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, in a family of eleven children, and came to cricket young — his father had him in organised coaching before he was seven. His first love was football, and he was a good table tennis player too, but cricket won.
The schools record is the first sign of what was coming. At fifteen, at Fatima College in Port of Spain, he scored seven centuries in a single inter-school season. Under-19 and first-class cricket followed quickly, and in only his second first-class match he batted more than five hours for 92 against Barbados — an attack that included Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall.
He captained the West Indies under-23s in 1988 and led a West Indies B side in Zimbabwe in 1989. His father died in 1989, before Lara’s international debut. He has said since that this was the hardest moment of his cricketing life, and the drive that followed was partly for him.
His first-class debut came for Trinidad and Tobago in 1987-88. His international debut followed in late 1990, against Pakistan — the one-day side first, in Karachi in November, and the Test side a month later in Lahore.
Brian Lara Cricket Career
Lara’s international career ran from November 1990 to April 2007, almost exactly sixteen and a half years.
The breakthrough years
He was given his Test debut in Lahore in December 1990, in the absence of Viv Richards, and made 44 and 6. Lara was then left out and sent back to domestic cricket — a detail worth remembering when people describe his rise as instant.
Brian Lara came back and did not leave again. He made 333 runs opening the batting at the 1992 World Cup, at a time when the rest of the West Indies batting was in trouble. Then came his fifth Test and the innings that announced him: 277 against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1993, made as Australia were becoming the best side in the world. He later named his first daughter Sydney after it.
Fifteen months on came the fortnight that rewrote two record books. In April 1994 at the Antigua Recreation Ground he made 375 against England, passing Garry Sobers’ 365 not out, which had stood since 1958. In June, playing county cricket for Warwickshire, he made 501 not out against Durham at Edgbaston.
Captaincy
Lara captained the West Indies in three separate spells across roughly a decade. The highlight was the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, which West Indies won under his leadership — the region’s only global title between the 1979 World Cup and the 2012 World T20. The job was not an easy one: he inherited a side in long-term decline, and his captaincy record is a subject on which Caribbean cricket still argues.
The great individual innings
What distinguishes Lara from almost any contemporary is how often the match turned entirely on him. The two most cited are both against Australia in 1999: 213 at Sabina Park to level a series, and then an unbeaten 153 at Bridgetown, shepherding the last-wicket pair to a one-wicket win in a chase of 308. Wisden has repeatedly ranked that 153 among the finest Test innings ever played.
The final years
He went on scoring into his late thirties — 226 against Australia at Adelaide in 2005, 216 against Pakistan at Multan in 2006 — and finished with eleven and a half thousand Test runs, which at the time of his retirement was the most by any batter in history.
Brian Lara Career Statistics
These are three distinct categories and should not be added together. Test and ODI figures are international. First-class and List A figures include international matches plus domestic and county cricket, so his 22,156 first-class runs already contain his 11,953 Test runs.
Test and ODI batting statistics
| Test | ODI | |
|---|---|---|
| Matches | 131 | 299 |
| Innings | 232 | 289 |
| Not out | 6 | 32 |
| Runs | 11,953 | 10,405 |
| Balls faced | 19,753 | 13,086 |
| Highest score | 400* | 169 |
| Average | 52.88 | 40.48 |
| Strike rate | 60.52 | 79.52 |
| Fours | 1,559 | 1,035 |
| Sixes | 88 | 133 |
| Fifties | 48 | 63 |
| Hundreds | 34 | 19 |
| Double hundreds | 9 | 0 |
| Triple hundreds | 2 | 0 |
| Quadruple hundreds | 1 | 0 |
| Ducks | 17 | 16 |
A note on rounding: his ODI average is printed as 40.48 by some databases and 40.49 by others. The true figure is 10,405 divided by 257 completed innings, which is 40.486 — one source truncates it and the other rounds it. Neither is wrong.
Two rows there are worth more than the rest. He has two Test triple-hundreds and one quadruple-hundred — the only entry in that last row belonging to anyone in the history of the game. And he hit 88 Test sixes in an era that did not encourage them.
Bowling statistics
| Test | ODI | |
|---|---|---|
| Balls bowled | 60 | 49 |
| Runs conceded | 28 | 61 |
| Wickets | 0 | 4 |
| Average | — | 15.25 |
| Economy | 2.80 | 7.47 |
| Best figures | — | 2 for 5 |
He bowled right-arm leg breaks about as often as a specialist batter ever does: ten overs in 131 Tests without a wicket, and four ODI wickets with a best of 2 for 5.
First-class and List A statistics
| Format | M | Runs | HS | Avg | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-class | 261 | 22,156 | 501* | 51.88 | 65 | 88 |
| List A | 429 | 14,602 | 169 | 39.67 | 27 | 86 |
A fact worth pausing on: Lara passed 10,000 runs in both Tests and ODIs, a double only a handful of batters in history have managed — and he did it for a team that, for much of his career, was losing.
He did not play T20 internationals or in the IPL. The format arrived in 2005 and the West Indies played their first T20I the year before he retired, so his T20 and IPL columns are empty on every database.
Brian Lara ICC Ranking
Brian Lara’s best ICC ranking was world number one, and he achieved it in both formats — Test batting and ODI batting. His peak published rating was 912 points, reported on 4 April 1999, immediately after his unbeaten 153 against Australia at Kensington Oval. Steve Waugh was second at the time on 880.
| Format | Current rank | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| Test batting | — | 1 |
| ODI batting | — | 1 |
| T20I batting | — | — (never played the format) |
Two points of accuracy matter here, because this is where most online profiles go wrong.
First, that rating was published under the PricewaterhouseCoopers system, the direct ancestor of today’s ICC Men’s Player Rankings rather than the ICC-branded list we know now. ESPNcricinfo reported 912 as the highest rating achieved by any batter during the 1990s — but explicitly not the all-time high, since the same model back-calculated 959 for Don Bradman in 1934.
Second, a retired player does not have a current ICC ranking. Lara has not appeared on the live list since 2007. If a website shows him with a present-day position, it is either mislabelling a historical table or making it up. What is meaningful is his peak rating and the fact that he held top spot; what is meaningless is a 2026 “ranking” for a man who stopped playing nineteen years ago.
Brian Lara Highest Score in Test Cricket
Brian Lara’s highest score in Test cricket is 400 not out, made against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground in St John’s in April 2004. It is the highest individual score in the history of Test cricket and has stood unbeaten for more than twenty years.
The context makes it stranger and better. Lara had held the record once already — his 375 at the same ground, against the same opposition, ten years earlier. In October 2003, Matthew Hayden took it off him with 380 against Zimbabwe at Perth. Six months later Lara took it back, and went past 400 to do it.
That sequence makes him the only batter in history to reclaim the individual Test record after losing it. The progression reads: Garry Sobers 365 not out in 1958, Lara 375 in 1994, Hayden 380 in 2003, Lara 400 not out in 2004.
Nobody has come close since. The nearest approach was in July 2025, when Wiaan Mulder reached 367 not out for South Africa against Zimbabwe and then declared, leaving the record where it was by choice.
Brian Lara 400 Scorecard
The fourth and final Test of England’s 2003-04 Caribbean tour, played 10–14 April 2004. England had already won the series 3-0. Lara, recently restored to the captaincy, had made 0, 0, 8 and 33 in the previous three Tests.
| Match | West Indies v England, 4th Test |
|---|---|
| Dates | 10–14 April 2004 (Lara reached 400 on 12 April) |
| Venue | Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, Antigua |
| Lara’s innings | 400 not out |
| Balls faced | 582 |
| Minutes at the crease | 778 — just under thirteen hours |
| Fours | 43 |
| Sixes | 4 |
| West Indies first innings | 751 for 5 declared |
| Result | Match drawn |
He came in at 33 for 1 on the first morning and was still there when he declared on the third day. Of the 751 runs West Indies made, he scored 400 — more than half of his own team’s total, which is the part of the scorecard people forget.
The criticism at the time was that it was a flat pitch at the end of a dead series. Both things are true. Neither explains how one man occupies the crease for thirteen hours without giving a chance.
Brian Lara 501 Scorecard – The First-Class World Record
Seven weeks after breaking the Test record in 1994, Lara broke the first-class one. Playing for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in June 1994, he made 501 not out — the only quintuple century in the history of first-class cricket.
| Match | Warwickshire v Durham, County Championship |
|---|---|
| Date | June 1994 |
| Venue | Edgbaston, Birmingham, England |
| Lara’s innings | 501 not out |
| Balls faced | 427 |
| Fours | 62 |
| Sixes | 10 |
| Warwickshire innings | 810 for 4 declared |
| Durham reply | 556 for 8 declared |
| Result | Match drawn |
The previous record was Hanif Mohammad’s 499, made for Karachi in 1959 and ended by a run-out going for the 500th. Lara passed it and kept going.
One distinction to keep straight: 501 not out is a first-class record, not a Test or ODI one. His highest Test score is 400 not out and his highest ODI score is 169. Profiles that list “501” as his highest score are conflating two different categories of cricket.
Brian Lara Centuries and Major Records
Brian Lara scored 53 international centuries: 34 in Tests and 19 in ODIs. In first-class cricket, which includes his Test hundreds, he made 65. In List A cricket he made 27.
| Category | Centuries |
|---|---|
| Test | 34 |
| ODI | 19 |
| Total international | 53 |
| First-class (includes Tests) | 65 |
| List A (includes ODIs) | 27 |
Nine of his 34 Test hundreds were doubles or better, which is the statistic that really separates him. Once set, he did not get out.
His best one-day innings is in the same mould. The 169 against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 1995 came from 129 balls, against a spin-heavy attack in severe heat, and West Indies won the match by four runs. Take his innings out and they lose comfortably.
One more record belongs here, and it is the kind that only a long career produces: Lara scored a Test century against every other Test-playing nation of his era. No side worked him out.
| Score | Opponent | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 400* | England | St John’s | 2004 |
| 375 | England | St John’s | 1994 |
| 277 | Australia | Sydney | 1993 |
| 226 | Australia | Adelaide | 2005 |
| 221 | Sri Lanka | Colombo | 2001 |
| 216 | Pakistan | Multan | 2006 |
| 213 | Australia | Kingston | 1999 |
| 209 | Sri Lanka | Gros Islet | 2003 |
| 202 | South Africa | Johannesburg | 2003 |
Which bowler dismissed Brian Lara most often?
According to head-to-head records, Glenn McGrath dismissed Lara 15 times in Test cricket, more than any other bowler. In one-day internationals the most frequent was Wasim Akram with 7.
Behind McGrath in Tests come Andre Nel on 8, then Shane Warne and Angus Fraser on 7 each. It says something about the era that the two bowlers who troubled him most were the best fast bowler and one of the best fast bowlers of their generation, and that neither managed it even once every three innings.
Brian Lara’s International Cricket Career in 2007
2007 was Lara’s last year as an international cricketer, and it ended at a World Cup held in his own region.
He had already played his final Test — against Pakistan on 27 November 2006 — without knowing it would be the last. The 2007 World Cup, staged across the Caribbean, was intended as his farewell, and the West Indies went out in the Super Eight stage.
His final international appearance came on 21 April 2007 against England at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown. He was run out for 18. England won by one wicket in a dead rubber. It was not the send-off the occasion deserved, and he was candid about that afterwards.
The often-quoted line from his farewell — asking the crowd whether he had entertained them — has become part of Caribbean cricket folklore, and it captures what he thought the job was.
When Did Brian Lara Retire?
Brian Lara retired from international cricket in April 2007. The dates are worth separating, because they are frequently muddled:
- 10 April 2007 — he announced his retirement from one-day international cricket.
- 19 April 2007 — he announced his retirement from all international cricket.
- 21 April 2007 — his last international match, against England at Bridgetown.
His last Test had already been played five months earlier, in November 2006.
Retiring from international cricket did not mean retiring from cricket altogether. He signed for the Indian Cricket League later in 2007 and captained the Mumbai Champs, and he has appeared in exhibition and charity matches since. He has also worked as a commentator, a mentor and, as covered below, an IPL head coach. None of that changes the answer to “when did Brian Lara retire” — the international career ended in April 2007.
Did Brian Lara Play in the IPL?
No. Brian Lara never played a match in the Indian Premier League.
The confusion is understandable, because he has three separate connections to Indian franchise cricket and only one of them involves a bat.
The Indian Cricket League, not the IPL. In July 2007 Lara signed for the ICL, the unofficial rival league, and captained the Mumbai Champs. A fractured arm in January 2008 ruled him out of that season. The ICL is a different competition from the IPL and is not recognised by the BCCI.
The 2011 IPL auction. Lara put his name forward for the 2011 player auction with a reserve price of USD 400,000. No franchise bid. He was then 41 and four years retired.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, as a coach. This is the franchise his name is attached to, and the role was always on the sidelines. He joined Sunrisers Hyderabad in December 2021 as batting coach and strategic advisor for IPL 2022, was promoted to head coach for IPL 2023, and was replaced by Daniel Vettori in August 2023.
So if you are asking which IPL team Brian Lara played for, the accurate answer is none. He coached Sunrisers Hyderabad. Those are not the same thing, and plenty of websites report them as if they were.
Why Did Brian Lara Stop the Match?
This is a question worth answering honestly rather than dramatically: there is no documented occasion on which Brian Lara stopped a cricket match. He never walked off in protest, never abandoned a game, and was never responsible for a match being halted.
The search almost certainly refers to one of three real events, and which one depends on what the reader half-remembers:
1. The celebrations when he broke the Test record in 1994. On 18 April 1994 at the Antigua Recreation Ground, Lara pulled Chris Lewis for four to pass Garry Sobers’ 365. Play paused amid the celebrations, he was mobbed, and Sobers — who was at the ground — came to congratulate him. Something similar happened at the same venue in 2004 when he reached 400.
2. The declaration at 400 not out. Lara, as captain, declared the West Indies innings closed on 751 for 5 with himself unbeaten on 400. Ending an innings is not stopping a match, but “Lara stopped at 400” is a phrase that circulates and may be what people are recalling.
3. His retirement. “Why did Brian Lara stop playing” is a different question with a straightforward answer — he retired from international cricket in April 2007, at 37, after seventeen years.
If you have a specific match in mind, tell us which one in the comments and we will check the scorecard. What we will not do is invent an incident to fill the gap.
Brian Lara vs Virat Kohli – Who Is Better?
This comparison is asked constantly and answered badly, usually by someone picking the statistic that suits their conclusion. Here is the honest version: they were built for different jobs, in different eras, and the answer depends entirely on what you are measuring.
| Brian Lara | Virat Kohli | |
|---|---|---|
| Career span | 1990–2007 | 2008–present (ODIs only) |
| Tests | 131 m · 11,953 runs · avg 52.88 · 34 x 100 | 123 m · 9,230 runs · avg 46.85 · 30 x 100 |
| Test highest score | 400* | 254* |
| ODIs | 299 m · 10,405 runs · avg 40.48 · 19 x 100 | 317 m · 15,109 runs · avg 58.78 · 55 x 100 |
| T20Is | Did not play the format | 125 m · 4,188 runs · avg 48.69 |
| International centuries | 53 | 86 |
Kohli’s figures are as at mid-October 2026. He retired from T20Is in June 2024 and from Tests in May 2025, and remains active in ODIs, so his one-day numbers will move.
Where Lara is ahead: the Test average, the Test hundreds, and the peaks. Lara has nine Test double-hundreds and the two biggest individual innings in the sport’s history. He also made his runs for a losing side against the best bowling attacks of the 1990s — Australia at their peak, Pakistan’s reverse-swing pair, South Africa’s Donald and Pollock — with limited support at the other end.
Where Kohli is ahead: the one-day record, which is not close. An ODI average approaching 59 across more than 300 matches, with 55 hundreds, is the best sustained limited-overs batting of the modern era. He also mastered a format Lara never played, and his fitness and consistency across fifteen years set a standard the sport has adopted wholesale.
The honest verdict: if the criterion is the single greatest Test innings, or the ability to win a match alone, Lara. If it is run-scoring consistency across formats, or the ODI record, Kohli. Anyone who tells you one is categorically better than the other is choosing a criterion and not telling you which.
Brian Lara Wife and Personal Life
Lara has never married. His long-term partner is Leasel Rovedas, a Trinidadian journalist and model, with whom he has two daughters — Sydney, born in 1996, and Tyla, born in 2010. Sydney is named after the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he made his 277 in 1993.
He was one of eleven children. His father Bunty died in 1989 and his mother Pearl in 2002; he established the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation in their memory, working on health and child welfare in Trinidad and Tobago.
Beyond that, this profile does not speculate. Lara has been the subject of a great deal of tabloid attention over the years, much of it unverifiable and none of it anyone else’s business.
Brian Lara Net Worth in Rupees
Treat every number in this section as an estimate. No official figure for Brian Lara’s net worth has ever been published, and celebrity wealth lists are reverse-engineered from career earnings, endorsements and property, not from financial disclosures.
With that stated plainly: published estimates put his net worth at roughly USD 50–60 million.
| Estimate (USD) | Approximate INR |
|---|---|
| 50 million | about ₹476 crore |
| 60 million | about ₹571 crore |
Converted at the USD/INR rate of 95.22, quoted for 27 October 2026. The rupee figure will shift with the exchange rate even if the dollar estimate does not change.
His income has come from a long international career, county and franchise contracts, long-running endorsement work, commentary, coaching roles including the Sunrisers Hyderabad job, and the licensing of his name — most visibly to the Brian Lara Cricket video game series published by Codemasters, which ran through multiple editions from the mid-1990s and is what most people mean when they search for the “Brian Lara cricket game”.
Brian Lara Books
Two books are properly attributed to Lara himself:
Beating the Field: My Own Story (1995), written with Brian Scovell. His first autobiography, published at the height of the fame that followed the 375 and the 501. It covers his upbringing in Santa Cruz, his rise through Trinidad and Tobago, and the 1994 record-breaking summer while it was still fresh.
Lara: The England Chronicles (2024). A later memoir built around his career against England — the opposition he scored both of his world-record Test innings against, at the same ground, ten years apart.
Plenty has been written about him too, including biographies and extensive Wisden coverage. One caution: online bookseller and library catalogues merge authors who share a name, and a search for “Brian Lara” will return titles on unrelated subjects by a different writer. Those are not his.
Brian Lara Cricket Academy
The Brian Lara Cricket Academy is in Tarouba, near San Fernando, in Trinidad and Tobago. So the answer to “which country is the Brian Lara cricket academy in” is Trinidad and Tobago, in the West Indies.
Despite the name, it is primarily a stadium rather than a coaching school. Cricket databases also list it as the Brian Lara Stadium. It holds roughly 15,000 across fixed seating and grass banks, and includes indoor training facilities with four pitches, two of them with full-length fast-bowling run-ups.
| Location | Tarouba, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago |
|---|---|
| Capacity | About 15,000 |
| Opened | 2017 |
| Commissioned | 2004, by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago via UDeCOTT |
| Architect | Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum |
| Tenants | Trinidad and Tobago; Trinbago Knight Riders (CPL) |
| Notable match | 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final, South Africa v Afghanistan |
Its construction was a long-running controversy at home: commissioned in 2004 and not completed until 2017, with reported final costs above TT$1 billion against an original estimate of TT$257 million. It has since hosted CPL finals, men’s and women’s internationals, and a T20 World Cup semi-final.
If you came across “Brian Lara Cricket Academy” in the context of a coaching programme rather than a stadium, check carefully — private academies sometimes trade on the name without any official connection to him.
What Is Brian Lara Doing Now?
Lara works as a performance mentor for Cricket West Indies, a role he was appointed to in January 2023. It covers the men’s international teams across all three formats as well as the board’s academy, and it is advisory rather than a head-coaching job — tactical input, game sense, and what he described at the time as helping players with their mental approach to the game.
His first assignment in the role was the West Indies Test squad in Zimbabwe in February 2023. He was simultaneously head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 2023, a job he left that August.
Alongside that he commentates, appears in legends and exhibition cricket for West Indies Legends and similar sides, and runs the Pearl and Bunty Lara Foundation. He remains one of the most quoted voices in Caribbean cricket, which is partly why his name keeps appearing in match coverage nearly twenty years after he stopped playing.
Brian Lara Legacy and Impact on Cricket
The simplest measure of Lara’s legacy is that two of his records have outlasted entire generations of cricketers. The 501 not out is thirty-two years old. The 400 not out is twenty-two. In a period when scoring rates have risen across every format, nobody has got near either.
But the records undersell him. What Lara represented was the idea that one batter could still decide a Test match — not contribute to a win, but produce it. The 153 not out at Bridgetown in 1999, farming the strike with Courtney Walsh at the other end to beat Australia by one wicket, is the purest version of that, and it is why Wisden rates it among the greatest innings ever played.
He did this for a declining team. The West Indies of the 1970s and 80s had the most feared attack in cricket; the West Indies Lara captained were losing series regularly. For most of his career he was the reason anyone tuned in, and he carried that weight publicly and not always comfortably.
The technique was his own and essentially uncopyable — a backlift that finished somewhere above his head, hands that were impossibly quick through the ball, and a sense of where the field wasn’t. Coaches spent twenty years telling young left-handers not to do it, then watching Lara score 400.
He was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2012. Trinidad and Tobago named a stadium after him. Every time a batter passes 300 in a Test, the question asked is how far away the record is, and the answer is always the same name.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brian Lara
Who is Brian Lara?
Brian Charles Lara is a retired cricketer from Trinidad and Tobago who played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs for the West Indies between 1990 and 2007. He holds the highest individual score in both Test cricket (400 not out) and first-class cricket (501 not out).
Which country is Brian Lara from?
He was born in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago, and played international cricket for the West Indies, the combined team representing fifteen Caribbean territories.
What is Brian Lara’s age?
Brian Lara was born on 2 May 1969 and is 57 years old as of October 2026.
What is Brian Lara’s highest score in Test cricket?
400 not out, against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground, St John’s, in April 2004. It remains the highest individual innings in Test history.
Did Brian Lara score 400 runs in a Test innings?
Yes. He made 400 not out from 582 balls with 43 fours and four sixes, batting for 778 minutes, as West Indies declared on 751 for 5. The match was drawn.
What is Brian Lara’s highest first-class score?
501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in June 1994 — the only quintuple century in first-class cricket. This is a first-class record, not a Test one.
How many international centuries did Brian Lara score?
53 in total: 34 in Tests and 19 in ODIs. He made 65 first-class centuries, a figure that includes his Test hundreds.
When did Brian Lara retire from international cricket?
He announced his ODI retirement on 10 April 2007 and his retirement from all international cricket on 19 April 2007. His final match was against England on 21 April 2007.
Did Brian Lara play in the IPL?
No. He never played an IPL match. He played in the rival Indian Cricket League in 2007-08 and went unsold at the 2011 IPL auction.
Which IPL team did Brian Lara play for?
None. He was batting coach and strategic advisor at Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 2022 and head coach for IPL 2023, but never played for the franchise.
What is Brian Lara’s jersey number?
Not reliably documented. West Indies did not use shirt numbers for most of his Test career, and numbers printed on fan sites are generally unsourced.
What is Brian Lara’s estimated net worth in Indian rupees?
Published estimates put it at roughly USD 50–60 million, which is about ₹476–571 crore at the USD/INR rate of 95.22 quoted for 27 October 2026. No official figure has ever been released.
Who dismissed Brian Lara most often?
Glenn McGrath, 15 times in Test cricket. In ODIs the most frequent was Wasim Akram with seven.
What books are associated with Brian Lara?
Beating the Field: My Own Story (1995, with Brian Scovell) and Lara: The England Chronicles (2024).
Where is Brian Lara’s cricket academy located?
The Brian Lara Cricket Academy, also known as the Brian Lara Stadium, is at Tarouba near San Fernando in Trinidad and Tobago. It opened in 2017 and holds about 15,000.
What is Brian Lara doing now?
He is a performance mentor for Cricket West Indies, appointed in January 2023, working with the men’s international teams and the board’s academy. He also commentates and plays in legends cricket.
What was Brian Lara’s best ICC ranking?
World number one, in both Test batting and ODI batting. His peak published rating was 912 points in April 1999. As a retired player he has no current ranking.
Brian Lara vs Virat Kohli: who has the better cricket record?
It depends on the format. Lara has the better Test record — a higher average, more hundreds and the two biggest individual innings in history. Kohli has the better ODI record by a wide margin and has played T20Is, which Lara never did.
