When small is beautiful

Born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1969 Brian Charles Lara always imagined he was going to be a cricketer playing on the world stage.

At three years old when all the other kids had gone home to bed he was batting with a broom on his parent’s porch with marbles for balls and plant pots for fielders such was his passion.
Now in the twilight of his career and the West Indies World Cup hopes all but over his reputation could well be tarnished but for the astonishing achievements throughout his career. He has reached the status of a cricketing great not just by the raw statistics of his career but also by the way they have been achieved.
Nasser Hussein commented that no one in world cricket would sledge Lara just in case they woke him up. It might annoy him, he would take it personally and rather than just bat with his talent he would also add the determination to humiliate you.
His double hundred against Australia last year means he is now the world’s leading run scorer in Test Match history with 11,913, taking over from Alan Border. He has scored 34 Test centuries, of which 8 have turned into double hundreds and 18 others have passed 150. This capacity to score big hundreds sets him apart from all other batsman with the exception of Don Bradman.
In addition, he holds the highest individual Test score of 400 taking it back from Mathew Hayden who had deposed Lara himself who had previously scored 375 against England. 
These career statistics are exceptional and class him in the superstar category.
There is no hyperbole involved when Lara is talked about as being the greatest batsman of the modern era.
The two players who he could be compared with are Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, both Indians and prolific run scorers. Tendulkar is the only player to score more than 10,000 one day runs and Gavaskar with 34 Test hundreds had scored more than any other player until Tendulkar recently passed it. However, Gavaskar was a grafter in the Geoffrey Boycott mould while Tendulkar has never played that well under severe pressure as his second innings average testifies to. They also played their entire home games on batsman friendly Indian wickets.
There is one thing though all three of these men had in common. In sporting terms they were small men. Lara is 5’8” while both Tendulkar and Gavaskar are less than 5’5”. With a low centre of gravity it appears they achieve a balance that others cannot master.
In a similar vain, it is possible to look at Andre Agassi’s achievements in the modern tennis game where the serve is dominant and the most successful players are taller than 6’3”.
However, it is only Agassi in recent history who has achieved the Holy Grail of winning all four Grand Slams at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Flushing Meadow and Melbourne during his career. Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Roger Federer have all failed to achieve this and we have to go back to Byon Borg, who was no giant himself, to a player who completed the slam.
Both these sports are non contact so does the same apply to say football?
It is impossible to go through all the great footballers and debate whether they are the best or not but two names can be suggested from the modern era who would certainly be contenders. George Best and Diego Maradona.
Both these players not only thrilled the crowd they also put trophies in the cabinet. It is widely accepted Best was responsible for Manchester United winning the 1967 European Cup and Maradona, without any doubt, won the 1986 Word Cup for Argentina.
Both these men standing 5’6” and 5’8” respectively withstood the most physical attention from some of the world’s most ruthless defenders without letting it get the better of them.
Incidentally, before anyone starts shouting Pele is the greatest ever, he was 5’7”.
The fitness and physique of any sportsman will always be a vital part of whether any individual is successful  but in a world where training routines and eating programmes are planned to the smallest detail it is refreshing to see individuals buck the trend.
This is not to suggest that these great sportsmen were not fit but their natural talent transcended any physical attributes they had.
The hand eye coordination they possess must be exceptional and forms the basis of any technique required to perform at the highest level. The balance of feet and body enable this coordination to perform in unison, resulting in perfect timing, which is the key ingredient to success in any ball sport.
And, of course, they all had the mental ability to believe they are the best, believe they have the skills to outwit their opponents and the courage to follow it through.
These ingredients combine to ensure these sportsmen were not just good at what they did but truly great.
Sporting grace can best be described as when an action is completed with the perception of the least body parts moving to achieve the task.
It must appear effortless. Lara, Best, Maradona and the others may have been short in stature but they certainly had grace.
They are the reason we watch sport and it should be a lesson to all children never to believe their coaches if they are told they are too short or not big enough to make it to the top. It’s just not true as these extraordinary men have demonstrated.