Brian Lara vs Sir Viv Richards - Greatness in Two Different Shades

They say, you don’t remember what people did for you, just how they made you feel. It is amazingly true when it comes to cricket as well. Few years after players walk into the twilight of their careers, we are not so concerned anymore about their numbers – runs, averages, centuries, double-centuries or matches. Numbers contribute to hubris while class contributes to the aura.

And when it comes to the aura, the general charisma of a player, the respect and adoration they demanded of players and audiences alike, there aren’t too many ahead of two West Indian greats, Brian Lara and Sir Vivian Richards.

In their approach to cricket they were similar people – proud of what they represented, classy, possessed a swashbuckling swagger and managed from time to time to become larger than life, when the game and all its irrelevant paraphernalia just halted to witness majesty in full flow. Interestingly, Lara made his debut just a year before Richards played his last, which meant West Indies got lucky, gifted with a like for like replacement, something that rarely happens when teams are in transition.

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