Lara's Batting Record, Who will be next to take the title? Options

[Shane]

If this record goes in the future which it no doubt will, I think the performance will come from one of the above. Having considered many other batsmen in world cricket, the above are probably the most likely ones who have the stamina, concentration and skill for such an innings.

[Guest_Big Mac_*]

Australia tour Zimbabwe in June of this year and given the fact that it looks as though even more senior players may resign the Zimbabwe team will possibly be the worst team in international cricket by that time (Yes, that includes Bangladesh!) so the Aussie batsmen will make some big scores over there and Hayden will be looking to take back the record. I'd love to see Inzamam do it though, he's slimmed down and he looks like he can go on and make big scores each time he gets a start now as opposed to making 50 or 100 and getting tired and dismissed.

[Stirer]

Brian Lara took over six sessions to score his 400. A magnificent achievement - but bad for cricket. There are only 15 sessions available in a cricket test. What chance is there for a win? In this case, unless England capitulate completely, this test will fizzle out into a draw.

Look at it this way, in the first day and a half (seven sessions), only five wickets fell. IN the remaining eight sessions, WI have to take 20 wickets to win. Big scores might be great for the record books and for people to tell their grandchildren about; but it's not good for cricket!

[MaraudingJ]

I actually don't think any of these batsmen will break the record.

To tell you the truth, I think this record is going to stand for at LEAST ten years. The odds are against it being broken again, both literally and figuratively.

Literally, probability declares that, since it's been broken twice in six months, it should be many years before it falls again.

Figuratively, the odds are against it being broken because A) there is a massive amount of luck involved in scoring a quadruple century, batsman's brilliance notwithstanding - the pitch, the weather, the bowlers, the umpires, the fieldersj, and even the captain all have to conspire in one way or another to achieve this sort of score; (IMG:http://abcofcricket.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) while we are at a low ebb as far as bowling goes right now, I think the next five years are going to witness a rebirth of bowling talent. It wouldn't hurt if the game was tilted more in the bowler's favor by tweaking the laws and lessening the amount of creativity-sucking ODIs, but that's not likely to happen. Anyway, I'm putting my money on a bowling rebirth.

That said, if the odds were to be beaten, now's the most likely time, with all those amazing batsmen out there, pitches generally as flat as a board, bowling at a low standard, and the pace of the game far above what it was even ten years ago.

In any case, I'm very touched by Lara's record-breaking achievement. Not just the sheer weight of runs, or the fact that it's his second triple century, or even that he's done it with West Indies in the dumps. Mostly, I'm touched by what it means for a genius like him to carry the pride of an entire region on his shoulders. I don't think there's much more he can do. He's given about all he can, now. Different Lara from the late nineties, that's for sure.

[Guest_corrie d_*]

We shouldn't dismiss youngsters such as the up and coming Sridharan Sriram (better known as Sri). This guy is the Scottish Saltires 2004 overseas player from India. Though not as skilled and experianced as Rahul Dravid, he is a valid replacement for "the wall". From a young age Sri has shown interest, and ability in Cricket, scoring high runs so watch out for him - he could be the future world record holder.