Quotes from Brian Lara

Even I lost a series of Test matches as skipper.

I've played with and against great players. I've been with Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and played against Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jaque Kallis and Virat Kohli is up there with the very best.

Growing up in the '70s my heroes were Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks as a left-hand batsman.

My dad made sure he gave me everything, he sacrificed what he had to, to make sure I had what I needed to perform at the best level.

I fell in love with scoring a lot of runs. I never felt 50 or 100 were enough.

I played a couple first-class matches at Carlton and Guaracara Park and it was a real burial ground for the fast bowlers.

Every senior player has to play a part and help the skipper by performing their duties on the field and secondly by performing their duties off the field.

MS Dhoni would know what's best for him. He has served Indian cricket very well.

I don't think there is any 16-year-old who is going to embark on the sort of career that Sachin Tendulkar has had and walk away from the game at 40 with such great achievements. He's the Muhammad Ali and the Michael Jordan of cricket.

Attacking players are the ones who are best suited to break a record.

What you have to understand is that the first day I picked up a bat I made an impression on my older sister Agnes and my dad. It was about seeing people satisfied by what you're doing. I was creating a fan base.

Every time I go out into the middle I say I have to give 100 per cent, and I do.

This is a moment I will cherish forever... the first man to score 500 runs.

Tendulkar has had the greatest cricket career of anyone who has ever played the game.

Pretty early, when I started playing golf, I was compared to Garfield Sobers, who played both cricket and golf.

Good captains know the strengths and weaknesses of their teams and make decisions accordingly.

When the others grew tired and went home and there was no one else to play with I used to play my own Test matches on the porch of our house, using a broom handle or a stick as the bat and a marble as the ball. I would arrange the pot plants to represent fielders and try to find the gaps as I played my shots.

After accepting the captaincy at the beginning of the 1998 season, I immediately set high but attainable goals for the West Indies cricket team and myself.

I just want that someone in their 50s or 60s, when they talk about Brian Lara, they say 'I enjoyed watching that guy playing cricket.'

There are always going to be critics. But I have got to go out there and do my job.

A guy who is walking out of his crease purposefully because he wants to take advantage is wrong.

I first took up golf in 1994, and used to play intermittently. I couldn't devote as much time to it as I would've liked.

I try to read spinners and dictate to them, but they know very quickly if you're not reading them or if you're not confident.

The highest-ranked team in the world has the responsibility to ensure that the integrity of the game is upheld every single time they play. And that the spirit of cricket is with them every time they enter the field.