ONLY four West Indians figure amongst a field of 25 current batsmen in the world who have an aggregate upwards of 4,000 Test runs, as I write.

Heading the 71st table (overall) produced by yours’ truly on this page is Brian Charles Lara -- who recently became the first player to crest the 11,500-run barrier in Test match cricket history.

Lara, with 161 catches (as a fieldsman) in 128 appearances, is the second most prolific catcher in Test history.

Only Mark Waugh with 181 in said number of Tests, stands ahead.

Indian captain, Rahul “The Wall” Dravid whose prolific scoring in the West Indies recently, carried his career aggregate past 9,000 runs is the fastest player in history to reach the milestone (176 innings).

Dravid’s 496 runs (average 82.66) in the four-Test series, enabled India to achieve her first series win in the Caribbean in 35 years.

He also boasts the best average 58.75 of the entire lot of 25.

Australians Ricky Ponting (overall data) and Matthew Hayden must be singled out for special mention -- the latter having arrived at 26 Test centuries in only 84 matches, while Ponting’s record is amazing and he is only 31.

He would most likely surpass whatever the great Sachin Tendulkar ends up putting up in the future.

Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis, Inzamam, Sehwag, Hayden, Mohammed Yousuf and Gilchrist possess great career averages.

The 50s and catches columns is dominated by Lara, Dravid, Inzamam, Fleming, Ponting and Jayawardene, with Gilchrist head and shoulders above Sangakkara as a wicket-keeper.

The top 25 comprise: 10 Asians, five Aussies, four West Indians and two each from New Zealand, South Africa and England.

Key to chart below -- M: Matches, I: Innings, NO: Not Out, R: Runs, HS: High Score, AV: AVERAGE, 100: Centuries, 50: Half-Centuries, CTS.: Catches, STP.: Stumpings.

NEXT WEEK: DAREN GANGA