A US$30,000 bronze statue of cricket icon, Brian Charles Lara, was unveiled yesterday at the western end of the promenade named after him, in Port-of-Spain.

It was a low-key affair, sans any Government officials or Lara himself, who is in India for the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty-20 player auction.

Unfortunately for Lara, who had entered the auction with a reserve price of US$400,000, he was not selected by any of the teams.

Back home in TT, Laras statue, which can easily be seen by motorists on Wrightson Road, shows the batsman and former West Indies captain in his signature pull shot, standing on top of the world, facing east.

Planning consultant, landscape architect and managing director of Down South Design Limited, David Smith, told Newsday the idea for a statue of Lara was conceived by the Promenade Management Association and Eye Scream Animation in 2006 but it was shelved due to lack of funding.

We brought it back to life as part of a project, just prior to the Fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009, to beautify downtown PoS. The statue and the Childrens Art Exhibit just down the promenade, were funded in 2009 by the Ministry of Local Government, under the (Manning) administration.

The statue, inclusive of the cricket stump base and the globe upon which Lara stands on one leg, is 14 feet high, making it, Smith said, tall enough to be seen from Wrightson Road and low enough to be appreciated from within the Promenade.

When asked why it took so long to erect, Smith explained this was partially due to funding and then the hand-crafted fabrication process used to create the sculpture.

Florida-based company, Bronze Depot Incorporated, created it at its foundry in Bangkok, Thailand, using a process known as Lost Wax Casting.

Laras statue is just the beginning of refurbishment plans for the western end of the promenade.

Smith expressed hope that corporate and Government sponsors would be inspired by the effect of the bronze sculpture on the existing landscape, to approve funding for the a new entrance plaza to the Brian Lara Promenade.

He said the redundant stretch of Richmond Street would be replaced by an extension of the Promenade while a low-level berm would run parallel to Wrightson Road, providing some privacy to people as they sat on new, more comfortable, benches.

Brian Lara holds the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, 501 not out. He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class or test cricket.