The Lara, Hooper and Viv Richards controversy

I HAD JUST STARTED reading Brian Lara: The England Chronicles when I became aware that Carl Hooper and Viv Richards had accused Brian Lara of “gross misrepresentations” in his book, recently released. Lara then was reflecting on

the West Indies tour of England in 1991. He had made his debut for the West Indies against Pakistan in December 1990 but was 12th man in the WI series against England in England in 1991. That series was to be the last for Viv. Lara was then 22. He said that “Viv used to make me cry every three weeks, but he would make Carl cry once a week. If that was not so and certainly Richards and Hooper disputed it, then Lara needs to withdraw it.

This is most unfortunate because Lara at that time had a certain reverence for Richards. He wanted to be in the wicket with him and was only able to do so once in an ODI match at Lords when the partnership amassed only 20 runs. He made the remark that “Viv’s tone of voice is intimidating and if you are not strong enough you can take that personally and be affected by it. Me, I was never really affected by it. In a way, I welcomed it, because I was so much under his arm that I knew abuse was coming and I was a strong personality. Carl? I know for a fact that Carl shied away from Viv Richards.” Was he suggesting that Carl was not a strong personality?

Lara admired Carl’s batting. Reflecting on the match at LORDS he stated. “I see the class of Hooper.

Man, what a player. The ease in which he batted brought out a kind of awe in us, and in all of us, even the senior players. You felt that when Carl went out to bat, they enjoyed it – Haynes, Richards, Greenidge, all of these guys would stop what they were doing just to watch him.

He was so talented, yet he didn’t understand just how good he was . . . Carl was easily one of the best players I’ve seen. I would say that not even Tendulkar and myself would come close to that talent.”

As I stated earlier, he had a sort of reverence for Viv; “I don’t think Viv wilfully intimidated you. It was just his makeup. He’s not a bully. But Viv has a very strong personality. He’s a very aggressive person who dealt with most things that way. If we had a team meeting, he would inspire. He would back his players for ever. He would talk in such a way that it left a mark on you. Even now he is not a soft person. Maybe he has a soft side, but a soft, person?

Put it this way. Viv was Viv, with everything that went with it, at all times. I was on his tail all the time so I might have received more tongue lashings than most, but it never affected me badly because I knew that what he was talking about was what West Indies cricket needed to hear. If you sift out all the toughness and the so-called arrogance

and listen to what he’s really saying, he means well for West Indies cricket…. His sternness was who he was, but he never wanted you not to do well. It was just how he was. And look, Viv loved Carl. Much more than he loved me, that’s for sure.”

Lara and Viv seemed to have developed a close relationship on that tour of England in 1991. Viv had a deal with Vauxhall and was given access to a Vauxhall Calibra, which Lara used to drive Viv around for the entire summer. There is a suggestion in the joint statement by Viv and Carl reacting to Lara’s depiction of them that he was “attempting to profit from such deceit”.

I was just beginning Lara’s book and had reached the part to which Viv and Carl were objecting. That prompted this article, but as was stated before the whole situation was unfortunate. I cannot see in what way Lara hoped to profit from it. Even when making those statements Hooper and Richards had his admiration. He was then trying to make the Test team and was grossly disappointed with his performance in England, attributing much of it to his unfamiliarity with English conditions. He was at times nervous and was moreover too uptight.

As I reflect on West Indies cricket today, I note that many of our batsmen who are being selected for our test team have quite low averages. In 1989 in India’s tour match at St.

Kitts, Lara, playing for a West Indies Under 23 team, made 182 runs. In 1990 in a West Indies Board President XI game against England he made 134. He was later to make his Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi in December 1990. More amazing was that he became the youngest captain of the Trinidad team at the age 20. Another prolific scorer who had difficulty making the West Indies team was Irvin Shillingford. Hopefully I will have other comments after completing this recently released book by Brian Lara.

_ Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian