English guard of honour for Lara

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 21 (UNI) In one of the rarest show of spotstmanship, the entire England team today lined up to give a guard of honour when West Indies captain Brian Lara walked into the wicket to play the last international match of his illustrious career.

As Lara walked down from the pavilion after the fall of Chris Gayele, the entire stadium rose and gave him a standing ovation while England players ran to form a guard of honour from square leg to slip area.

Normally such a respect is given only while returning from the wicket but for Lara everything is different. Instead of coming at lower middle order, he came to the crease as one down, a spot which was reserved for him in the West Indies batting lineup for a long time till he himself changed it frequently towards the end of his career.

England players lined up both sides of the wicket and Lara acknowledged the rare gesture by removing his helmet and even the Umpires also welcomed him to the wicket.

This is the 299th one-day international for Lara. He announced his retirement from all forms of the game on Thursday.

His typical reflexes were there and after acknowledging the crowd he went down to do business that he enjoyed doing in the past 17 years.

UNI