Brian Lara exhibition at Lord's

Date released: 16 June 2007

This summer, MCC will host an exhibition in the Museum at Lord’s celebrating the career of Brian Lara - the West Indies legend who has just announced his retirement from international cricket. The exhibition has been organised with input from Brian himself, and will feature many cricketing artefacts and photographs from his astonishing career.

On loan from Brian Lara will be the bats he used during his 501 innings against Durham (the world record score in first-class cricket), his record-breaking 375 Test innings (against England in Antigua in 1994) and the bat used to regain the Test record with an innings of 400 runs (against England in 2004 at the same ground).

Other exhibits will include balls, stumps and clothing from other significant matches, the jacket given to him by Nelson Mandela, the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year award, which he won in 1994, as well as family photos from his personal collection and childhood trophies.

Also on show will be the acclaimed MCC-commissioned portrait of Brian by Justin Mortimer (see right).

The exhibition will be situated on the upper floor of the MCC Museum and will form an integral part of the Tour of Lord's. Last year, in excess of 42,000 people joined in a Tour and numbers are expected to rise with the opening of the Lara Exhibition in mid-May.

MCC Curator Adam Chadwick said: “We have been planning this exhibition with Brian for some time but, following the announcement of his retirement from international cricket, this gives both MCC and the public a chance to celebrate his outstanding career. Most of the items are on loan from Brian’s home in Trinidad, and have never been on view to the public before. There will be a child-friendly aspect to the displays and MCC will be inviting local schools to visit the exhibition free of charge over the summer.”

The official opening date of the exhibition to the public is Thursday 17th May - the first day of the England v West Indies npower Test at Lord’s.

For more information about Tours of Lord's or to pre-book a place, please click on the link to the right.