Into the darkness rides the knight

Today, Charles plays his last international game. A one-dayer against England, not at all fitting for this legend, 'The GENIUS' of his generation. Last time around, I missed writing a farewell post 3 months back when another legend rode into the darkness of retirement. But not this time.

Brian Charles Lara, the epitome of everything that is beautiful about this gentleman's game. A left-hander par excellence with an exaggerated backlift, a flowing cover drive that is as exquisite and graceful as the salsa, footwork and timing that will do Gaurav Iyer (one of our best on the IIMB dancefloor) proud, wrists that have been specially custom-prepared by GOD to make rival captains look stupid - I can go on and on.

Very often, during the last 15 years, Charles has repeatedly shown why his art has compelled the usually reticent to purple prose. Many a times, one is forced to drop everything one is doing and go find a thesaurus to find more and more superlatives to describe the genius.

But as the knight mounts his horse and rides into the setting sun, the game will miss a lot of things: it will miss one of its greatest ever batsmen with an astonising appetite for runs, it will miss one of its most innovative thinkers with a brain that revelled in outfoxing the best opponents but above all the game will miss one of its fairest and most honest practitioners. A GIANT among the PYGMIES.

Thank you, Brian 'Charles' Lara, for all the wonderful moments you have given me. Fare ye well.