Deep Dasgupta Reveals How India Planned To Dismiss 'Talkitive' Brian Lara During The 2002 Series

Deep Dasgupta, former Indian wicketkeeper, recently went down memory lane and reminisced about the 2002 tour of the West Indies where the Sourav Ganguly-led management resorted to a unique plan to dismiss Brian Charles Lara.

India has a hugely successful summer of 2002. The Men in Blue registered their maiden ODI series win in the Caribbean and followed it up with Natwest tri-series triumph in England and a drawn Test series.

But before all this, India traveled to the Caribbean for a five-match Test series. India registered their first overseas Test win against a major Test-playing nation after a decade when they beat West Indies in Trinidad before eventually losing in Barbados and Jamaica to lose the series 1-2.

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“He would get bored and get out,”- Deep Dasgupta reveals India’ plan of dismissing Brian Lara during the 2002 series

Leading into the Test series, Brian Lara was supposed to be the biggest threat to India.

Recalling one of the team meetings, Deep Dasgupta recounted that it was suggested that no one will talk to Lara when he is out there in the middle, with the hope that he might get bored and throw his wicket away.

“One of the funniest things that ever happened was when we were playing against the West Indies in 2002. It was the first Test in Guayana and in the team meeting we were talking about how to handle Brian Lara. Some of the things that were said in that meeting were ‘don’t talk to him’. I was like, what are you saying? They said ‘he would get bored and get out,” said Deep Dasgupta in ’22 Yarns’ show.

He revealed that Lara wanted to talk to Rahul Dravid and him during his innings but they would just turn their backs and look the other way.

*Whenever a spinner would bowl, I was behind the wicket, and Rahul was there in the slips. Brian would play a ball, he would turn around wanting to talk to Rahul or me and we would turn our backs and look the other way. He would want to start a conversation, and we would be like, no, nothing happening,” he added.

Revealing the reason behind the plan, Dasgupta said that having a chat with opposition players pumped Lara up and helped him get into his rhythm.

“He just wanted to chat, that’s the kind of batsman he was. He would love to talk about his batting, he would want to talk about everything,” Deep Dasgupta added.

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