- Role
- Batter · 'The Prince of Trinidad'
- Country
- West Indies
- Batting
- Left-hand bat
- Bowling
- Right-arm leg break
- Born
- Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago — 2 May 1969
- Net worth
- $50m–$60m (editorial estimate)
The man who owns batting’s two summits
Cricket’s record books have two Everests: the highest Test score and the highest first-class score. Brian Lara owns both — and has for more than three decades combined.
In April 1994 he broke Garry Sobers’ 36-year-old Test record with 375 against England in Antigua. Fifty days later he scored 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham, the only quintuple-hundred in first-class history. And in 2004 — after Matthew Hayden had taken the Test record with 380 — Lara walked back out at the same Antigua ground, against England again, and took it back with 400 not out, the only quadruple century in 150 years of Test cricket.
No one else has broken the Test batting record twice. No one else has come within 20 runs of the 501.
Career records at a glance
| Record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Highest Test score | 400* (Antigua, 2004) — world record |
| Highest first-class score | 501* (Edgbaston, 1994) — world record |
| Test runs | 11,953 with 34 centuries |
| Runs in one over | 28 off a Test over — a record at the time |
| Runs in one series | 688 vs Sri Lanka (2001–02), facing Muralitharan at his peak |
The 153 not out: the greatest innings ever?
Ask cricketers to name the best Test innings ever played and one answer keeps winning: Lara’s 153 not out in Bridgetown, 1999, against an Australian attack of McGrath, Gillespie, Warne and MacGill. Chasing 308, West Indies collapsed around him to 105/5, then effectively to nine wickets with runs still needed. Lara took his team home by one wicket, hitting the winning boundary himself. Wisden later rated it the second-greatest Test innings of all time — behind only Bradman’s 270.
Playing style
The highest backlift in the game, a flourish like a conductor’s downbeat, and placement so precise that captains joked about needing eleven extra fielders. Lara was a rhythm player: when the trigger movements synced, bowling at him became clerical work — his monumental scores (375, 400*, 501*, plus nine Test double centuries) came from an appetite no batter has matched. Against spin he was untouchable; his 688-run series against peak Muralitharan in Sri Lanka is the finest campaign against a great bowler on record.
Net worth and life after cricket
Lara retired in 2007 with the (then) most Test runs in history. Two decades of endorsements, ambassadorial roles, commentary and business interests across the Caribbean and India place editorial estimates of his net worth at $50–60 million. The Brian Lara Cricket Academy stadium in Trinidad carries his name — as does, informally, an entire era of West Indies cricket that he carried alone.
See where 400* and 501* rank among the highest individual scores in cricket history.
Frequently asked questions
What is the highest individual score in Test cricket?
Brian Lara's 400 not out, for West Indies against England at Antigua in April 2004. He is the only player ever to score a quadruple century in Test cricket — and remarkably, it was the second time he had broken the world record on that same ground.
What is the highest score in first-class cricket?
Also Lara: 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in June 1994, just weeks after he had scored 375 to break the Test record. It remains the only 500 in first-class history.
How many Test runs did Brian Lara score?
11,953 Test runs — at the time of his retirement in 2007, the most in history. He scored them with 34 centuries, including nine double hundreds and the game's only quadruple.
Net worth figures are editorial estimates compiled from public reporting. Players and boards rarely disclose contract values. Profile last updated 16 July 2026.