Former teammates of Brian Lara, Viv Richards and Carl Hooper, have strongly retaliated against their former West Indian colleague for openly misrepresenting their characteristics and distorting historical events in Lara: The England Chronicles, the author’s most recent book.
“The flagrant falsehoods concerning Sir Vivian Richards and Mr. Carl Hooper in Mr. Brian Lara’s newly published book have greatly disappointed us.
The pair claimed in a joint statement released by Carl Hooper that the accusations “not only distort the reality of their relationship, but also impugn their characters in an unjust and harmful manner.”
As was first revealed in news reports, Lara’s book had a comparison where he rated Carl Hooper higher than both Sachin Tendulkar and himself. Furthermore, Lara pointed out that Richards’ way of showing love did not match Hooper’s feelings, according to.
While he stressed that Richards always had the team’s best interests at heart, Lara in the book recounted how his comments in the locker room may be “intimidating” to players. “He would make Carl cry once a week, but Viv used to make me cry every three weeks,” Lara recalled. If you’re not strong enough, you can take Viv’s frightening tone of voice personally and be negatively impacted by it. For me, it never really got to me. Because I was so strongly bonded to him, I sensed that abuse was inevitable, so in a way, I embraced it. Carl? I can say with certainty that Carl avoided Viv Richards.”
But Hooper refuted the accuracy of the statement, saying that in contrast to what Lara’s book said, Richards had always and unwaveringly stood by him. Hooper also stressed that the foundation of their almost four-decade partnership was mutual respect and solidarity. He maintained that Lara’s book’s misrepresentation of their exchanges constituted a grave atrocity against the truth and had unnecessarily distressed both parties and their loved ones.
As Mr. Hooper’s first captain, Sir Vivian has never put him through emotional hardship. Conversely, he has consistently offered unflinching support and served as an uplifting mentor. Mutual respect and companionship have been the cornerstones of their nearly 40-year relationship. Both parties and their families have suffered excessive grief as a result of the misrepresenting of their interactions in Mr. Lara’s book, according to their joint statement.
Lara has come under fire from Richards and Hooper for “seeking to profit from such deception,” which they deemed “incomprehensible” in light of his prestigious standing in international cricket. To protect the integrity of public discourse, they have sought a formal, sincere apology as well as a public retraction of the misleading statements.
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Lara only played one international match with Richards, an ODI at Lord’s during the tour of England in 1991, but he was far more involved with Hooper, captaining and playing for him.
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