Sachin Tendulkar from India and Brian Lara from the West Indies are two of the best batters in cricket history. They broke a lot of records when they played. Sachin has scored the most runs ever in both Tests (15,921) and ODIs (18,426). Lara has the highest scores in Tests (400) and First-Class Cricket (501). They respect each other a lot. But Lara said someone else was even more talented than him or Sachin.
Lara said Carl Hooper, who used to play with him was the most gifted player he’s ever seen.
“Carl was hands down one of the top players I’ve seen. I’d even say Tendulkar and I don’t come close to that skill. Split Carl’s career between playing and leading, and his stats look way different. As a captain, he scored 50 on average so he liked being in charge. It’s too bad he showed his real potential when he was captain,” Lara said in his new book, as ESPNcricinfo reported.
Lara also pointed out that Vivian Richards, the famous West Indies hitter liked Hooper more than him even though Richards didn’t want anyone to be better than him.
“Hey, we gotta talk about Viv Richards. He never put anyone down ’cause he didn’t want them to be as great as him. Yeah, he was tough, but that’s just who he was. He never wanted you to do . That’s just how he rolled. And you know what? Viv cared about Carl. Way more than he cared about me, that’s for sure. But the way Viv showed he cared didn’t sit well with Carl.”
Not long ago, Lara picked two players from England and two from India who he thinks could beat his record of 400 runs in a Test match.
“Back in my day, we had guys who took a shot at or even went over 300 – Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sanath Jayasuriya. They were hard-hitting players,” Lara told The Daily Mail.
“How many big hitters do you see playing now? Take the England team. Zak Crawley and Harry Brook. Maybe in India’s lineup? Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill. If things line up right, they could smash those records – both of ‘them,” he added.