West Indian legend Brian Lara names Sangakkara in his list of legends

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Members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World XI cricket team, Kumar Sangakkara (L) and West Indies Brian Lara (R) chat after a press conference, in Melbourne 03 October 2005. The ICC World XI will play three one-day matches against Australia under a closed roof in the 50,000 seater Docklands Stadium before moving to Sydney where they will play a six-day Test Match. AFP PHOTO/William WEST

The Caribbean Spartan, Brian Lara named the Sri Lankan veteran Kumar Sangakkara in his list of legends to have decorated the game of cricket. Speaking exclusively to Fox Sports’ Inside Cricket, Lara proclaimed a catalogue of legendary players who he believed were the best at their discipline.

The West Indian southpaw picked Kumar Sangakkara, who announced his retirement this year, ahead of Adam Gilchrist as the greatest ever wicket-keeper batsman of our era.

It must be noted that earlier this year, during the world cup, Brain Lara tweeted using his official twitter handle, calling the Sri Lankan legend as the all-time best wicket-keeper batsman.

“It’s very tough to decide between Adam Gilchrist and Kumar Sangakkara,” Lara told Fox Sports. But he believed that his test record and the prolific world cup he had down under made Sanga the ideal choice.

“But I believe at the recent World Cup, with Kumar Sangakkara scoring four hundreds on the trot, (plus) numerous amount of double centuries in Test cricket and a great record all round, he’d be my number one choice as a wicketkeeper-batsman,” Lara added.

Kumar Sangakkara on many an occasion has declared his love for Lara’s batting and identifies himself as his fan. “I always tried to play all the shots Lara played, but you can’t,” Sanga once lamented.

Brian Lara represented the West Indies in 131 tests and scored 11, 953 runs at an average of 52.88 whereas Sangakkara played 134 tests for Sri Lanka and scored 12,400 runs at an average of 57.40.