Byju’s founder hails cricket legend Brian Lara with emotional Teachers’ Day tribute

For a brief period in 2003, Matthew Hayden's 380 runs against Zimbabwe set the world record for the greatest individual score in Test cricket. This score surpassed the previous record of 375 set by Brian Lara. But six months later, in 2004, Brian Lara broke the record by smashing an unbeaten 400 against England, which is still the highest individual Test score ever.

In that innings, Lara reached his century in 131 balls, brought up his double ton in 260 deliveries, and completed his triple century off 404 balls. The historic, record-breaking moment arrived with a delicate sweep off Gareth Batty, which took him past Matthew Hayden’s 380.

Lara recently talked candidly about the tremendous pressure he endured when holding and momentarily losing the record for the highest individual score. Lara talked about how his historic innings was more than just stats when he appeared on The Overlap Cricket YouTube show. They carried a burden of personal suffering, national pride, and expectations.

Lara recalled on the moment in 2003 when Matthew Hayden shattered his 375-run record while speaking on the show.

Lara recalled how he first heard the news with a midnight phone call in Jamaica. He said, “It was at night. I was asleep in Jamaica. My agent, lawyer called me. He's in London. He said, I have a number for you to call. I said, why?”

“Because I think he did a lot in that day. So he might have went to sleep at one something and then he scored a couple of hundreds on that day. He said, I have a number for you to call. The private dressing room. I said, why? He said, someone just broke your record. So I called the dressing room. It was very noisy, very loud. I got to Matthew. Congratulated him.”.

He also talked about how, months later, he battled back to win it back in Antigua with an undefeated 400 versus England. Lara also discussed the psychological toll it took on him over the nine years that his record remained before it was suddenly taken away. He said, “Funny enough, I felt that for that 10-year period, 9-year period, I had a lot of stress because of those two records.”