Brian Lara becomes cricket’s highest run scorer

Brian Lara this morning overtook Allan Border as test cricket’s highest ever run scorer, during his innings of 226. He has now scored 11,187 runs in 121 tests, at an average of 54.04. For the last several years, he has been the only world class player in a struggling West Indies team.

I actually saw him break the record today (only on TV) - as its always nice to see champions and their great achievements in sport. (I’ve not been following this test series too closely, I must admit, as its hardly been competitive and inspiring until Lara’s efforts yesterday).

In other cricket news, I heard on the radio this morning that Zimbabwe captain, Tatenda Taibu, has quit as captain and retired from international cricket. Taibu is only 22 - and the only player in the Zimbabwe team even of remotely Test match class, and he’s quit over the shambles that is now Zimbabwe cricket (not to mention the whole country under the corrupt, brutal Mugabe dictatorship). Regardless of the strong political arguments for chucking Zimbabwe out of test cricket, I think the pure cricket arguments demand this too …why have a team demeaning test cricket by being the whipping boy of all other teams (except maybe Bangladesh)? Zimbabwe’s national team would struggle in Sydney or Melbourne grade competition.