Legendary left-handed Caribbean batsman Brian Lara has admitted that legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was the toughest bowler he faced in his career. Also, Lara has named the best active batsmen and bowlers.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli and English cricketer & Test captain Joe Root have been elected by Lara as the best active batsmen. Meanwhile, Lara has also claimed that the English pacer James Anderson and South African pacer Kagiso Rabada are the best active bowlers.
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Recently on September 5, the former West Indian skipper Lara was in New York as part of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Trophy Tour driven by Nissan. During that time, he took part in the Reddit AMA where he answered many questions regarding cricket.
When he was asked the toughest bowler he faced, Lara chose the legendary Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan over another legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne.
Lara said, “Muttiah (Muralitharan) always confused me in the early part of our confrontation, whilst Shane Warne didn’t. Having said that, as my innings grew I felt I had more control over Muttiah, whilst Shane seemed to grow in confidence. They were definitely the two best spinners of my time.
Talking about Warne, Lara added, “He played for the best team in the world during my era, he was, and still is, regarded as the best leg-spinner to play the game. It was a battle I just embraced in some of the largest cricketing arenas.”
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been criticised for decreasing the number of teams for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup as 10 teams will now participate in this competition. However, Lara has backed the ICC’s decision as he believes that the growth of the game is providing the T20 cricket and it should be increased to 16-team World T20.
Lara told on this, “The most important thing for the ICC to consider is the growth of the game, where that will happen is in the T20 format. All the countries that are taking to the sport as of late are naturally attracted to T20 format since it’s the most exciting.
“Moving on to the longer formats, you want good quality and intense cricket and only the best teams in the world can offer that. Therefore, I feel the number of teams in the World T20 being 16 and the number in the ODI World Cup being 10 is just right,” he said.
Lara also supports the inclusion of T20 cricket in the Olympics as he believes that it is the right time to include it.
The Caribbean legend said, “The T20 format lasts just three hours so I don’t see why it can’t be included in the Olympics. It was nice to see golf get that opportunity again, it’s time for cricket now.”
