'We played cricket with anything we put our hands on' – Brian Lara's journey

Lara is seen as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, his genius recorded for posterity with a host of records, including the highest first-class score of 501*. The left-hand batsman accumulated 11,953 Test runs at an average of 52.88 and 10,405 in one-day internationals at 40.48 – and it all started as a four-year old with a bat his brother made for him.

"My brother shaved a cricket bat out of a coconut branch," he said in a special for ICC Cricket 360, remembering his early days of learning and loving the game. "We played cricket with anything we put our hands on – a hard orange, a lime, a marble – anything we could use in the backyard or the streets."

Young Lara tried his hand at various sports, including football and table tennis. But his cricket-crazy father influenced his decision to stick to the willow. "My dad made sure he gave me everything, he sacrificed what he had to, to make sure I had what I needed to perform at the best level," Lara said.

Watch the full segment below.