Lara's leaving party

As Brian Lara plays what is probably his final Test in Australia Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist recall their experiences with West Indies’ genius. In The Australian Ponting remembers asking Lara for batting tips and his verbal exchange last week in Hobart. Adam Gilchrist simply says: I've never seen anyone manipulate a field like he can."

Mike Coward pays tribute in the same paper and writes Adelaide is the perfect place for the farewell. “It is, after all, the world's most classically beautiful cricket ground and therefore provides the appropriate stage for the world's most classically beautiful batsman.”

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck says Lara's reputation is “patchy” and his legacy “mixed”. “[But] not since the era of Sobers and Pollock has a batsman been as worth watching. Lara used an epee, the rest were armed with broadswords.”