Former West Indies captain and star batsman Brian Lara was inducted into the Hall Of Fame by the International Cricket Council in Colombo, Sri Lanka last Friday evening. Lara is the 67th male member to have been inducted into the Hall Of Fame. He joined 16 West Indian cricketers to have achieved this honor. They are Lance Gibbs, Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Michael Holding, Rohan Khanhai, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weeks, Frank Worrell, Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner and Curtly Ambrose.
Brian Lara played 131 Test matches, scored 11,953 runs and averaged 52:88. West Indies ended that series 2-2 against the Aussies.
KUMAR SANGAK KARA WINS THREE ICC AWARDS
Kumar Sangakkara Sri Lanka’s wicket keeper batsman won three awards at the annual ICC awards in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sangakkara won the cricketer of the year award, Test cricketer of the year and people’s choice award. He played 299 one-day internationals scoring 10,405 runs and averaging 40:48. He scored 34 test centuries and 19 one-day centuries. He holds two world records: the highest score in a first class cricket match, he scored 501 not-out for Warwickshire against Durham in the English County Championship and 400 not-out against England in Antigua, West Indies. Lara echoed that his best innings was his 213 runs against Australia at Sabina Park, Jamaica in 1994.
KUMAR SANGAKKARA IS CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Kumar Sangakkara has won the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for winning the Cricketer Of The Year ICC award. Within a 12-month period ending Aug. 14, 2012, Sangakkara scored 1,444 in 14 Tests with five centuries, which included a double-century against Pakistan and averaged 60:10. He played 37 one-day internationals scoring 1,457 runs with three centuries, 39 catches and three stumpings.
ICC STANDINGS FOR TEST (BATTING)
KC Sangakkara, 892; HM Amla, 869; S. Chanderpaul, 829; JH. Kallis, 822; Abde Villiers, 806; MJ Clarke, 771; GC Smith, 767; Younis Khan, 761; Azhar Ali, 753.
ICC BOWLING STANDINGS
DW. Steyn, 881; VD Philander, 852; Saeed Ajmal, 832; HMRKB Herath, 782; JM Anderson, 761; BW Hilfenhaus, 756; PM Siddle, 740; S. Broad, 727; M. Morkel, 724.
ICC WORLD TWENTY20 WILL BE VERY COMPETITIVE
West Indies players ought to get themselves ready for some tough and competitive cricket as the Twenty20 begins.
All the teams are coming in with their game plans but the team with the better allround performance will win the competition. Bowlers have to give that special effort to limit batsmen to low scores.
Some bowlers have already shown that they can contain batsmen and restrict them. The testing abilities will be on show and the team that performs the best will certainly win the championship.
