Exclusive - It's a day I can remember like it was yesterday: Brian Lara on his 400*

It has been 17 years since Brian Lara became the first player to score 400 in international cricket and nobody since has come close to replicating it. He brought it up with a sweep down to fine leg off Gareth Batty to reach the landmark. Moreover, he did that at the same venue and against the same opposition he initially broke Garry Sobers’ record of 365 – vs England at St. John’s Antigua. 

Recalling the eventful day of April 4, 2004, Lara in a face-off against Criclytics, Cricket.com’s AI-driven prediction platform, said, “Very grateful. Got so many fans across the world who remind me of these momentous occasions. So, I wake up, I look at my social media and there are messages galore about today and the significance of today. 

"It's great to have these achievements and people to recognise you for them. It's a day I can remember like it was yesterday. I'm almost sure you can't tell me how many runs I had in the series prior to scoring that 400. I can tell you I had only 100 runs in six innings. So there was no way in my thought process I'm thinking, 'hey, you're going to go out there and regain the world record.' But it happened.”

Lara further added that he felt sorry for a couple of Englishmen who were coincidentally present for his 375 and also his 400*. “Feel sorry for guys like Nasser Hussain who was there for the 375 and 400. And Graham Thrope as well. They remind me of that all the time - Brian, I've watched you bat for 775 runs and I've got you out just once.' It's a great day. For me, to see the fans celebrating it more than I am, it's a very humbling feeling.”

While England won four-match series 3-0, Lara’s memorable knock helped West Indies avoid a whitewash. 

There were many critics of Lara’s innings, terming it selfish. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that he couldn’t imagine anyone from his side doing that. “It’s hard to imagine an Australian player doing it,” Ponting told AAP.  

“It’s generally not the way we play our cricket. Their [West Indies] whole first innings might have been geared around one individual performance and they could have let a Test match slip because of it. They ran out of time in the game – that’s not the way the Australian team plays.”

Former England cricketer and commentator Tony Greig too was not pleased with the knock, saying “I’m certainly not raving about the innings.”

However, West Indies had over 235 overs to bowl England out twice. In the first innings, they were bundled out for 285 in 99 overs. However, they put in a much-improved performance after being asked to bat again, playing out the remaining 137 overs successfully.