LAHORE, Nov 10: For one man the opening Test between Pakistan and the West Indies will be a special occasion here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday. When Brian Lara, the current West Indies captain, made his debut on this very ground on Dec 6, 1990, not many would have predicted that the diminutive left-hander will be attaining great heights in world of cricket in the years to come.

Lara, then 21, was awarded his first Test cap in place of Carlisle Best, who was dropped after making 1 and 8 at Karachi and 6 and 7 in the second Test at Faisalabad.

Arriving in the middle at 24 for two, after skipper Desmond Haynes and the prolific Richie Richardson had been dismissed cheaply, Lara weathered the early storm created by pace duo of Imran Khan, the Pakistan captain, and Wasim Akram.

He then saw the vastly-experienced Gordon Greenidge falling leg-before to Imran with the total on 37. After a rather tentative start, Lara grew in stature in the company of Carl Hooper.

The partnership between Lara and Hooper realized 95 before the debutant was caught in the close-in area by Aamir Malik off that wily leg-spinner Abdul Qadir for an 89-ball 44 compiled in almost two-and-a-half hours.

Although Imran had Lara caught by Saleem Malik for five in the second innings, the promise exhibited by the little Trinidadian in that drawn final Test of the series gave a source of hope and inspiration for the future of West Indies cricket since the legendary Viv Richards (who skipped that series), Greenidge and Haynes were all close to retirement.

Since that Lahore Test nearly 16 years ago, Lara proved that he was the logical successor to the great Richards. After just three seasons in international cricket, Lara broke the longstanding Test individual batting world record of Sir Garfield Sobers (365 not out versus Pakistan at Kingston, 1957-58) by smashing a brilliant 375 against England in the final Test of the 1993-94 series at St John’s in Antigua. His landmark that day was witnessed by Sobers, who himself was among the first to congratulate Lara.

Within a space of two months after that record-breaking knock, Lara went past Pakistan’s batting legend Hanif Mohammad’s highest first-class score of 499 when he hit an unbeaten 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in the English County Championship match at Edgbaston in June 1994.

Lara briefly lost his Test record to the burly Australian left-handed opener Matthew Hayden, who hammered the lowly-rated Zimbabwe bowlers for 380 at Perth in October 2003.

But six months later, Lara reclaimed the record when he faced England on his favourite hunting ground in Antigua. This time, the little genius, now in his second tenure as captain, became the first man in the long history of Test cricket to score a quadruple century. Although West Indies lost that series to England at home after a long time, Lara ensured his team avoided an England whitewash with 400 not out to his name.

Despite a spate of misfortunes suffered by West Indies, it was matter of time before Lara became Test cricket’s most prolific scorer. The occasion was the Adelaide Test against Australia in November 2005 when Lara eclipsed Allan Border’s tally of 11,174 runs.

Now in the twilight of a glittering career, Lara is keen on saying goodbye to his Pakistani fans with a memorable farewell. He badly wants to erase the memory of the last tour when West Indies played in this country nine seasons ago and Pakistan whitewashed the islanders for the first time in Tests. Lara’s scores in that series were 3 and 37 at Peshawar, 15 and 1 at Rawalpindi, 36 and 37 at Karachi.