It had taken someone -- Australian opener and another left hander Mathew Hayden -- nearly ten years to surpass Lara's highest Test innings of 375, made against England at the Antigua Recreation Ground in 1994.

And it took the batting genius from Trinidad and Tobago only seven months to not only regain the crown that is naturally his by beating Hayden's landmark of 380, but to go where no cricketer has gone before -- 400 runs in an innings.

Therein lies Lara's unmatched greatness to explore unchartered territory of unique cricketing achievements, be it in a Test or in a first-class match as the highest individual first-class score of 501 also belongs to him. This mammoth total which he accumulated within a few months of his then unique 375, still stands.

If another Caribbean, paceman Michael Holding was the poetry in bowling, Lara is the same in batting. There is a natural grace in the batting of a rookie. But in Lara, it is not merely grace but beauty and flamboyance never seen in any other batsman.

Throughout his career so far, Lara has seldom been dominated by bowlers. One has just to recall the way he hit former Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev and former Pakistan captain Imran Khan in the 1992 World Cup as a debutant.

Watching those innings of Lara, one could not discern any expression in his face. The impression apparently given by Lara was that it was natural of him to play like that.

Be it any sort of wicket and against any bowling, Lara has shown his genius, scoring runs at will. His innings of 277 in the Sydney Test against Australia about seven years ago had prompted the immortal Don Bradman to say that he was willing to walk miles to watch such batting.

It is one of the tragedies of cricket that Lara is in a West Indian team whose other members are qualitatively far inferior to him. When he single-handedly won matches for his country at times, there were more occasions that his stupendous batting efforts have not been supplemented by his teammates.

Imagine what would have happened had Lara been a member of the team of the eighties under the inspirational captain of Clive Lloyd. But let us not get into the realm of fantasy. For, the reality is that Lara has translated into reality what for most remain in the annals of dream and imagination.

Lara is needed not only to keep alive the hopes of the West Indian cricket that has over the last ten years plunged into unprecedented gloom but for the sake of the game and posterity when cricketers from across the world will look at him as a model.