Guyanese Online

By Marc Higginson BBC Sport

Twenty years ago this week, West Indies batsman Brian Lara broke Sir Garfield Sobers’s 36-year-old world record for the highest score in a Test innings.

The legendary left-hander surpassed his compatriot’s 365 not out as he scored 375 against England at Antigua’s Recreation Ground in a historic match played from 16-21 April 1994.

BBC Sport spoke to those who witnessed his world record innings close up: two of Lara’s West Indies team-mates – Phil Simmons and Shivnarine Chanderpaul – and five England players who suffered in the field: Angus Fraser, Jack Russell, Phil Tufnell, Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart.

England went into the final Test of a five-match series on a high after becoming the first touring side to win in Barbados for 59 years in the previous Test, even though they were 3-1 down with the series gone. After losing the toss and being asked to field on a flat-looking wicket, England reduced the Windies to 12-2 – leaving Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams at the crease.

Former England fast bowler Angus Fraser: “We had lost the first three Tests and everybody was talking about a whitewash, and then we managed to win in Barbados. That was certainly a career highlight for many who played in that game – I got some wickets (8-115 in the match) and Alec Stewart got a hundred in each innings. It meant a dead series suddenly came to life.”   [Read more]