The Great Game Called Cricket...

Sunil Gavaskar was one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, and certainly the most successful. His game was built around a near perfect technique and enormous powers of concentration. It is hard to visualise a more beautiful defence: virtually unbreachable, it made his wicket among the hardest to earn. He played with equal felicity off both front and back foot, had an excellent judgement of length and line and was beautifully balanced. He had virtually every stroke in the book but traded flair for the solidity his side needed more. His record for the highest number of Test hundreds was recently overtaken by Sachin Tendulkar, but statistics alone don't reveal Gavaskar's true value to India. He earned respect for Indian cricket and he taught his team-mates the virtue of professionalism. The self-actualisation of Indian cricket began under him. Since retiring, Gavaskar has served as a television commentator, analyst and columnist, as well as various responsibilites with the BCCI and chairman of the ICC cricket committee. He recently stepped down - after some controversial comments - from the latter in orer to continue as a media columnist and commentator.
Sambit Bal June 2008

Few would dispute that Imran was the finest cricketer Pakistan has produced, or the biggest heart-throb. Suave, erudite and monstrously talented, he gave cricket in the subcontinent real sex appeal in the 1970s and 1980s. As such he and TV completed the popularisation of the game in his country which Hanif Mohammad and the radio had begun. Thousands, if not millions, who had never dreamt of bowling fast on heartless baked mud suddenly wanted to emulate Imran and his lithe bounding run, his leap and his reverse-swinging yorker. He also made himself into an allrounder worth a place for his batting alone, and captained Pakistan as well as anyone, rounding off his career with the 1992 World Cup. He played hardly any domestic cricket in Pakistan: instead he just flew in for home series from Worcestershire or Sussex, or rather from the more fashionable London salons. His averages (37 with the bat, 22 with the ball) put him at the top of the quartet of allrounders (Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev being the others) who dominated Test cricket in the 1980s. And whereas Botham declined steadily, Imran just got better and better: in his last ten years of international cricket he played 51 Tests, averaging a sensational 50 with the bat and 19 with the ball. He gave no quarter during some memorable battles with West Indies - Pakistan drew three series with them at a time when everybody else was being bounced out of sight - and he led Pakistan to their first series victory in England in 1987, taking 10 for 77 with an imperious display in the decisive victory at Headingley. After retirement he remained a high-profile figure, with his marriage - and subsequent split with - the socialite Jemima Goldsmith and a not entirely successful move into the labyrinthine world of Pakistan politics.
Martin Williamson

Dominant and domineering, Ian Botham was not merely the top English cricketer of the 1980s but the leading sports personality. In an era of discreet footballers - before Paul Gascoigne and David Beckham - he commanded endless newspaper headlines as his career surged improbable heights and bottomless depths. Within a year of being elevated from Somerset to his England debut in 1977, he was undisputed as the country's leading all-rounder; within three years he was captain; within four, he had resigned (a minute before being sacked), his form shot to pieces.

Then began the most famous few weeks in English cricket history when Botham (under Mike Brearley's captaincy) led England to an astonishing Ashes victory with three performances - two with bat, one with ball - of mystical brilliance. Every one led to victory and between them they caused a boom in support for English cricket that reverberated through the decade. By the end of it, sober judges were wondering if Botham had done more harm by good by making all England believe, as he did, that cricket matches are won by inspiration not preparation.

Though he remained an international cricketer until 1992, the great days became fewer. As his weight increased, his outswing became less effective. He could still hit a cricket ball with enormous power, but never once did he pass the ultimate exam of his era: scoring a Test century against the West Indians. Still, he could be mystical. Banned by insistent newspaper demand in 1986 for taking cannabis, he was recalled at The Oval against New Zealand, and with his second and 12th balls took the two wickets he needed to equal and pass Dennis Lillee's then-world record of 355 Test wickets. "Who writes your scripts?" asked Graham Gooch.

His batting was based on sound principles and phenomenal strength; his bowling seemed by then to be more run-in-and-hope, but batsmen remained intimidated by his early reputation to the end. His apres-cricket activities were always turbulent, and often semi-public, yet his marriage to Kath has lasted 25 years-plus at odds that seemed greater of 500 to 1. Almost as improbably, he has settled into a calm-ish middle age as a TV commentator of some wit and sagacity.
Matthew Engel June 2007

The 10th of 11 children, Brian Lara learnt his game at the Harvard Coaching Clinic, where he was enrolled at the age of six, and although at school he played for Trinidad's junior football and table tennis side, it was cricket which really drew him. Aged 14, he made 745 runs at 126.16, earning him selection for the Trinidad Under-16 team. A year later he was in the West Indies Under-19 side. In 1990, aged 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest captain, leading them to victory in the Geddes Grant Shield. In that year he made his Test debut, scoring 44 and 6 against Pakistan. No-one since Bradman has built massive scores as often and as fast as Lara in his pomp. Even his stance was thrilling - the bat raised high in the air, the weight poised on a bent front knee, the eyes low and level. Then the guillotine would fall, sending the ball flashing to the boundary. In the space of two months in 1994, Lara's 375 and 501 not out broke world records for the highest Test and first-class scores, but sudden fame turned him into a confused and contradictory figure. During an inventive but largely fruitless spell as captain of a fading team, Lara reiterated his genius by single-handedly defying the 1998-99 Australian tourists with a sequence of 213, 8, 153 not out and 100. For a while, excess weight and hamstring problems hampered his once-lightning footwork, and the torrent of runs became an occasional spurt. But after Garry Sobers suggested a tweak to his flourishing backlift, Lara returned to his best in Sri Lanka in 2001-02, with 221 and 130 in one Test and 688 runs - a record 42% of West Indies' output - in the series, and reclaimed the captaincy the following year.

The task proved as hard second time round, leading a side where he was far and away the best player and where discipline was a constant worry. He led them to defeat for a second time in South Africa, and then lost to England in the Caribbean, too. But then, just when all hope seemed to have deserted West Indies cricket, Lara responded to the prospect of a home series whitewash with an astonishing unbeaten 400 in the final Test against England in Antigua. In doing so, he became the first man to reclaim the world Test batting record, a feat that ensured he would stand alongside Shane Warne as the most charismatic cricketer of the modern era.

Then followed a spectacular low, when Bangladesh came visiting and had West Indies in trouble in the one-day series and the first Test, prompting Lara to threaten his resignation if his batsmen did not lift their game. They responded in the following game, and Lara captained the side in England, where the team was beaten in every Test they played. Astonishingly, he then galvanised his charges and led the one-day team to victory in the ICC Champions Trophy to spark off hopes of a West Indies resurgence. But it was under Shivnarine Chanderpaul that Lara registered his next big moment - in Adelaide in November 2005, when he went past Allan Border's tally of 11174 runs to become Test cricket's most prolific scorer. Then in April 2006, after protracted dispute between the West Indies board and the players union (WIPA), he was reinstated - for the third time - as West Indies captain. Lara's leadership in the five-match one-day home series against India came in for much praise as the tourists were knocked over 4-1, but in the succeeding Test series he struggled. His captaincy was erratic - inspiring in parts, questionable on many occasions - though he later revealed that his hands were tied due to peripheral issues related to team selection.

In Pakistan he led by example with the bat but results continued to go against his side and as West Indies struggled both on and off the field, it became increasingly obvious that Lara was unable to inspire them to greater things, and he appeared increasingly at odds with many of his team-mates. The World Cup offered him a chance to bow out on home soil and on a high, but it was not to be. He showed glimpses of his abilities, but one fifty in seven innings was not enough as West Indies went out with a whimper. He quit, one ODI short of his 300, amid rumours of bitter disputes with administrators. It was a sad, but perhaps inevitable, way for such a genius to bow out.
Cricinfo staff April 2007