Can't be ar$ed

From Charlie Randall's cricket site:

"Peter Roebuck, Somerset’s captain, complained about Hampshire’s runner during a NatWest Trophy match at Southampton in 1988, holding up play with protests that Paul Terry was exceptionally quick and much faster than the injured batsman Chris Smith could ever have been. Umpires Jack Bond and Ray Julian calmly informed Roebuck that the Law on runners did not specify speed.In 1994 Warwickshire sent out the heavyweight Andy Moles, already tired from his own innings, to assist Brian Lara at Scarborough as a humorous protest against the West Indian’s request for a runner."

Warne gets Six appeal

The Hong Kong Sixes takes place this weekend. A sell-out which features some competitive countries and the obligatory All-stars Six.

This tournament, held since 1992, has seemingly grown each year, while Shane Warne and Brian Lara have obviously given the ex-pat community even more reason to venture to the Kowloon Cricket Club to enjoy some ice beers in the humidity.

The All-stars team is: Geraint Jones, Anil Kumble, Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath, Craig McMillan, Heath Streak and Shane Warne.

The England team is: Darren Maddy, Luke Wright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Tim Bresnan, Kabir Ali, Alex Gidman and Steve Davies.

Sexiest cricketers

What better way than to reward users with a recent Barbados Daily Nation poll of "The Sexiest men in cricket". Click to enlarge each one (and Chris Gayle's muscles) as well as a close-up of Lasitha Malinga's hair. The Sri Lanka paceman has also courted debated back home with his looks and locks, with many fans unimpressed. One fan even suggested that he is "not a decent-looking gentleman". Read more here. And surprising there's no mention of either Shahid Afridi or Sachin Tendulkar for all those millions of female cricket fans out there.

Two legends in matter of months

So another legend bows out of the game. Brian Lara's last press conference predictably went on for a while and the left-hander answered the plethora of questions with consumate ease. When asked who was the best bowler he faced, he spoke most of Shane Warne. Although, he said, that Warne wasn't the "best" bowler and that Lara found him easy to play against, he explained that he always made him think, while the Aussie always seemed to be one step ahead in the heat of the battle.

Lara audio tribute

Catch my latest podcast (by clicking here from 12pm BST) with a tribute to Brian Lara's career.

Take out the negatives of dealing with the WICB's political wranglings, sponsorship fiascos and general Carribean malaise which dogged Lara in his captaincy, and you are left with memories of a player who, on his day, did things no other batsman could live with. He was also a menace to captains who tried to produce fields for the left-hander as his touch and skill mustered the Prince of Trinidad run after run.

Hey, and I even get to speak to Caribbean music legend Eddie Grant. It's official, the Electric Avenue singer is one cool customer.

Why not subscribe to the remaining World Cup podcasts? Click here for itunes links.

Do you have any memories of Lara the player except perhaps the world record knocks he produced? Comment below...

Two contrasting affairs

Andrew Strauss may have indicated as much with the Kensington Oval pitch, but today's World Cup was indeed a "strange" one.

The match schedule showed a meaningless match between West Indies and Bangladesh. It was anything but off it as ECB chairman David Morgan spoke of Duncan Fletcher's resignation and, as the last question was asked in the Brian Lara press conference, the day concluded with the news that the great left-hander would be retiring from the international scene.

So, two highly contrasting conferences. In the morning, Morgan buffed most of his questions to John Carr, the board's cricket operations man, and there was barely any sentiment given to Fletcher after he effectively took England from the pits in 1999 to Ashes winners seven years later. That the ECB made a mess of the previous day (when they should have told the media) was clear to see as Morgan apoligised for not only the board's handling of the issue but also England's World Cup failure.

Fast forward to the end of play and Lara was wrapping up talking about the West Indies win over Bangladesh. He took one more question and, looking visibly peeved, then jaw-dropped everyone by saying he was to quit all forms of cricket.

Press conferences are usually dour affairs: today saw both sides of the coin.

Blog exclusive: Lara kidnapped

Pah! Not quite - but in hindsight it might actually do some good for the West Indies team if Brian Lara went missing. Ramnaresh Sarwan's fresh approach to captaincy could be a start at least, as Caribbean cricket looks to begin a massive overhaul of its approach to the game.

Anyway, the Barbados coast guard's counter-terrorism unit was called to sea yesterday as (simulated) kidnappers attempted its daring bid to snatch Lara from either a casino, a St Lawrence Gap club, his luxurious property or the golf course.

"And within 30 minutes, at least seven perpetrators were held, some falling victim to the assault team's semi-automatic gunfire while others were badly wounded. The good news, however, was that the Special Operations Group had achieved their goal – rescuing an unharmed Lara."

I wonder what they would ransom now he's set to play his last few matches?

Caribbean records

Today marks 13 years since Brian Lara broke the 365 achieved by Sir Garfield Sobers.