Brian Lara’s 400 vs England: The Untold Story of Test Cricket’s Biggest Record

Brian Lara’s 400 not out vs England remains Test cricket’s biggest record — but was it brilliance or selfishness? Here’s the untold story

Brian Lara 400 story (Image Source: Google)

Brian Lara made 400 not out in 2004 against England in Antigua, setting a world record as West Indies piled up 626 for five. Just a few days ago, South Africa’s stand-in captain Wiaan Mulder had a fair chance to rewrite history. He was on 367 not out, only 34 runs short of Lara’s record, but chose not to pursue it and declared instead.

“Brian Lara is a legend. Lara keeping that record is exactly the way it should be,” Mulder said after the end of play.

Lara himself had reclaimed the record by scoring 400 not out (off 582 balls in 778 minutes) only six months after Matthew Hayden, hitting 380 for Australia against Zimbabwe in Perth, bettering Lara’s 375 in Antigua in 1994.

In 1998 Australia captain Mark Taylor had declared (second Test against Pakistan in Peshawar) when he was 334 not out and decided not to surpass Bradman’s highest Test score. Surprisingly, whereas his gesture was appreciated, what Mulder did was not supported by one and all. In fact, it is believed that if there's one record in Test cricket that deserves to be broken, it's Lara's high score. A thorough analysis of Lara’s 400 produces some very strange facts:

*Lara played 582 balls, batted for roughly 7 sessions and almost killed all the chances of a win for his team. This is one of the best examples of batting for the sake of a personal record only.

*He was captain of the team and after defeat in the first three Tests of the four Test series, had the best chance to finish with a win. England had not won a Test series in the West Indies since 1967-68 but, in 12 days’ play, they went 3-0 up.

*His 400* indicates that he was in great form, but he struggled during the series. Scored 500 runs at an average of 83 thus his contribution was only 100 runs in the 6 innings of the first 3 Tests, lost by his team. West Indies got out for 47 and 94 in two of the innings. Lara failed badly and was out for two consecutive ducks for the first time; his highest inning was 36. Harmison dismissed him thrice and the others once each.

* Antigua pitch can be very easily labelled as one of the dullest and is called a batsman’s paradise. The pitch didn’t challenge him at all and in total 1458 runs were scored for the fall of only 20 wickets.

The Recreation Ground pitch was described by Vaughan in Calling the Shots: “West Indies had prepared a pitch which would counter any thoughts of us getting a whitewash. A pancake could not have been flatter had a ten-ton steamroller gone over it a thousand times.”

* This record was set and surpassed in friendly conditions as the bowling side was suffering from injuries: first-choice spinner Ashley Giles replaced by Batty; Hoggard fell ill after 18 overs; and Steve Harmison was barred from bowling for running on the pitch, though Lara was 359 at the time.

* The luck was also on his side. Lara had not opened his account when his tentative drive off Harmison went through to the wicketkeeper Geraint Jones. Gareth Batty recalls, “I was at point and I’m 100 percent that he nicked off against Harmy.” England’s keeper and slips also claim that Lara was dismissed for nought. Tony Cozier, the West Indian commentator, was not so sure, nor was the Australian umpire Darrell Hair.

If Mulder had scored 34 more runs, it wouldn’t have hampered South Africa’s chances of winning the Test. This was day two, whereas Lara had continued batting till the third day. Mulder was playing against Zimbabwe, and they didn't have a fearsome attack. He ensured that his bowlers would have all the time to claim 20 wickets.

“He (Lara) had actually done us a favour because if he’d wanted to win the match he would have declared long before he did,” Vaughan wrote. Australia’s captain at the time, Ricky Ponting, was even more critical: “Their 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.”

Mulder’s declaration left West Indies great Lara as the only quadruple centurion in a Test innings but insisted that he had no regrets.

There are many who consider Lara’s 400 not out as the most selfish innings ever played in Test cricket. Facts stated above substantiate this theory. Another school of thought is worth consideration:

In that season England and West Indies played 8 Tests against each other. England won 7 and Lara’s 400*, stopped England from winning one Test. WI didn’t have the bowling resources to claim 20 England wickets.

As further play proved, if Lara had desisted from breaking Hayden’s world record, WI wouldn’t have won even then.

Upon achieving the record, Lara was greeted in the middle by Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of Antigua, while England captain Michael Vaughan hailed Lara as “one of the all-time great players”.

Graham Thorpe, who fielded through both of Lara’s marathons (375 and 400*), summed it up best in his autobiography Rising from the Ashes: “He was, quite simply, the best batsman I played with or against, ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, in that order.”