Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has praised Brian Lara’s “awesome performance” after the West Indies captain broke his batting world record on Monday.

“It doesn’t matter who the opposition is, what the count of the series is, where you’re playing - to bat that period of time is an incredible achievement.”

The press continued to praise Lara's achievements as this article from Andy Thornhill shows, compliments of the Nation News

If he has not quite reached the summit in terms of leading men, he certainly has no peers as far as being a complete and inspirational batsman. Lara’s record 400 was superb. I don’t believe that at the start of his innings he intended reclaiming the world Test record. It probably was more about salvaging some lost pride.

Suffering has a way of reinventing who we really are. It puts humility back where it should be – at the top of the tenets we draw on to get back on track once we’ve lost our way and aren’t afraid to admit it. Amid team failure, Lara has always been able to dominate with the bat, but he struggled before going to Antigua.

He is a very proud individual and must have answered that personal call for introspection. The fruits from his stay in the middle suggest strongly that he did. More power to him.

What I found most remarkable about Lara’s achievement was that it came ten years after establishing his first milestone.

Sportsmen, even though they get wiser with age, certainly aren’t likely to have the same level of reflexes, stamina and concentration as when they were younger. In modern sport the exceptions would be people like Linford Christie, Frankie Federicks, Merlene Ottey, George Foreman and Evander Holyfield.

You can add Lara to that august group.

Not only that, apart from talent, the one significant ingredient that makes these people champions is that they are all competitive, they all have a burning hunger to win, to stay at the top of their field. Because of this Lara was in total control from the outset.

A benign pitch notwithstanding, it appeared England could do nothing to disturbed his composure or his mission.

Lara said it was wonderful to have the world record back in West Indian hands but he felt the public was looking for a more cohesive team, rather than individual landmarks.

“People are going to rejoice. You must remember that Sir Garfield Sobers had the record before I broke it. I held it for ten years, lost it for six months, now it’s back in the Caribbean,” he said.

“But I think they would more appreciate it if we could get a more collective effort from the entire team.”

“ West Indies cricket does not at this time want to depend on one or two individual records. They want to see team performances going out there and that’s what we want to focus on right now.”

PS See what Lara's llittle girl thinks about it!

All information courtesy of the Nation News.

Contributing writers Phillip Spooner, Tony Cozier and Andi Thornhill.

Photography Brooks LaTouche Photography

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