Brian Lara's announcement of his imminent exit from international cricket was a sad end to an illustrious career filled with world records. Trinidadian Lara, who will be 38 on May 2, will play his last match as an international cricketer against England in West Indies' final World Cup game in Barbados on Saturday night. He will end on 299 one-day internationals and 131 Tests. Given his recent comments, it is clear this was not the way the left-handed batting champion wanted to leave the world stage. "I'm only 37," he said in an interview in March. "A lot of players stretch their career

into their forties. There's a lot of work to do to get West Indies cricket back on track.".

It seems conflicts with administrators and selectors ultimately forced his hand and deprived him a perfect swansong on West Indies' tour of England from next month. It would have been his fifth Test tour of the country.

Lara has scored more runs (11,953) in Test cricket than anyone, his 400 not out remains the highest individual score in Tests and his 501 not out for English county team Warwickshire in 1994 is unsurpassed in first-class cricket.

Although he is undoubtedly proud of his achievements, one of the game's greatest players is leaving the sport in a mood of doom and gloom at unfulfilled team potential.

Until he explains his reasons in depth, pundits will surmise that regular under-achievement by his team, pressure from disgruntled fans and stinging criticism from commentators, nibbled away at him to the point when he felt enough was enough.

In his three spells as West Indies captain, Lara was not successful. Even as skipper at Warwickshire in 1998 he was not a success and was even booed by club members. His legacy may be clouded for now while the dust settles following a bitterly disappointing World Cup for West Indies in front of their own, passionate fans. But in the long run his is a career that should be celebrated. He leaves with a Test batting average of 52.88 and 34 centuries, level with India's Sunil Gavaskar and one fewer than his long-time contemporary and friend Sachin Tendulkar. He has 10,387 one-day runs in 298 games with a game left. He said this week the 2004 Champions Trophy win, when West Indies beat England away from home, was his greatest one-day highlight.

Maybe what is most impressive, though, is Lara's mental toughness and the way he often carried a team in decline since the mid-nineties, when players of the calibre of Richie Richardson and Desmond Haynes retired.

Even when an inferior West Indies team met an Australia consisting of several all-time greats like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh in 1999, he single-handedly earned a 2-2 series draw with three scintillating centuries.

One of them, 153 at Barbados, was considered by cricket's most respected almanac Wisden as the second-best test innings of all-time.

He was elevated from prodigy to world great when he scored 375 against England at Antigua's Recreation Ground in 1994, beating Garfield Sobers' 365. A month later he scored his 501 not out against Durham at Edgbaston.

Even when Australian opener Matthew Hayden surpassed his Test high score with 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003, Lara was so determined to regain his record he scored 400 not out against England in 2004, again in Antigua.

That innings also helped West Indies stave off their first whitewash at the hands of England.

This kind of mental toughness and grit has been an often under-rated quality of his, behind the silky stroke-play and mounting records.

"A thing I am really proud of myself for is that I have been knocked down so many times as a player, as a person, and it is that strength, that I suppose comes from my parents, to be able to pick myself up each time and go out there in the face of adversity," Lara said.

"That is something that I didn't read in a book or wake up in the morning with. It is deep down and it is a part of my family trait."

--Reuters