Exhibition in celebration of 'The Prince' at Lord's

London, May 13 (UNI) The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) will celebrate the outstanding career of Brian Charles Lara by hosting an exhibition at Lord's which will be inaugurated by the West Indian legend himself this Thursday.

The inauguration will coincide with the first Test between West Indies and England at Lord's, which the visitors play sans the stylish southpaw who had annouced his retirement after the World Cup.

The exhibition has been organised with inputs from Lara, and will feature many cricketing artefacts and photographs from his astonishing career.

Adam Chadwick MCC Curator 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.'' People will be able to see the bats used by the batting genius 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).

''Most of the items are on loan from Brian's home in Trinidad, and have never been on view to the public before.'' Chadwick added.

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, as well as family photos from his personal collection and childhood trophies.

UNI