Former India wicketkeeper batsman Deep Dasgupta has revealed that batting legend Brian Lara enjoyed a conversation while at the crease and during India’s tour to the West Indies in 2002 their ploy was to bore the ace southpaw by not talking to him.
“One of the funniest things that ever happened was when we were playing against the West Indies in 2002. It was the first Test in Guayana and in the team meeting we were talking about how to handle Brian Lara. Some of the things that were said in that meeting were ”don”t talk to him”. I was like, what are you saying? They said ”he would get bored and get out,” recalled Dasgupta in a show called 22 Yarns hosted by Gaurav Kapoor.
Dasgupta, who played eight Test matches and five ODIs for India between 2001 and 2002, added that Lara would want to engage in a conversation with him and Rahul Dravid at first slip but they would stick to the plan and not give in.
In five Test matches, Lara managed only 202 runs at an average of 28.85.
“Whenever a spinner would bowl, I was behind the wicket and Rahul was there in the slips, Brian would play a ball, he would turn around wanting to talk to me or Rahul and we would turn our backs and look the other way. He would want to start a conversation and we would be like, no, nothing happening,” Dasgupta said laughing.
“He just wanted to chat, that’s the kind of batsman he was. He would love to talk about his batting, he would want to talk about everything,” he added.
The Windies won the five-Test series 2-1.
“He would get bored and get out. And that”s exactly what happened right through the series, Brian didn’t get a lot of runs there,” Dasgupta further said.
“We would talk to him every time we met him outside the field but whenever he came out to bat nobody would talk to him,” he added.
