Lara says younger talent is bringing out the best in him

Brian Lara, temporarily at least, silenced his vocal band of critics on Tuesday with a superb century on his return to Test cricket in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle.

Lara, who pulled out of the West Indies tour to Zimbabwe and Kenya in July and August with a long-standing hamstring injury, scored an unbeaten 117 as the West Indies piled up 316-3 on the opening day.

There are always going to be critics," he admitted. "But I have got to go out there and do my job. The coach asked me what I want to do this series and I told him that I want to make plenty of runs and spend a lot of time in the middle."

Critics voiced concern over his inclusion in the squad for Sri Lanka when it was revealed that he was still suffering from his hamstring injury. Moreover, they argued that the 32-year-old Trinidadian batting genius had long lost his hunger for runs.

He, though, claims that the emergence of new West Indian batting talent has provided the stimulus to develop his game.

"The competition within the side is greater than what it has been in years gone by," he said. "The young players like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Ganga are special and batting with them brings out the best in me."

"I have been working on a few things in the last six weeks since I returned. I am looking to play bit straighter and show the full face of the bat. It is nice to go out there, work on something, and get the results"

Ominously for Sri Lanka, Lara, the record holder for the highest scores in both Test and first class cricket, maintains that he is not yet finished in this match: "I'm very happy now, but I am going to come back tomorrow and look for something really big."

"It's a very good position but it is very important that the second innings is not a very important innings. We need to get 500-600 runs and put Sri Lanka under pressure. We cannot allow them to get back into the game.

"Hopefully, the wicket will crumble, as we are now playing three spinners. The longer we stay out there the better."

Lara came to the wicket at the fall of Daren Ganga, with the West Indian innings evenly poised on 95-2, but quickly took the came away from Sri Lanka with a 150 ball century in a 145 run stand with Ramnaresh Sarwan and an unbeaten 76 run fourth wicket partnership.

He was dropped on 31 and 93, but was only consistently troubled by off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who rolled out 40 overs of testing spin.

"Muralitharan is a very good bowler and it's a great competition between us," he said. "I appreciate his ability to bowl off-spin. He is something special in world cricket.

Lara looked to play him positively, right from the start when he got off the mark with a fine sweep for four.

"I think you have to keep him thinking," he said. "He is going to keep you under pressure if you just look to stay there, so I think you need to keep scoring."