Was Brian Lara's 400 not out a selfish innings?

Brian Lara bowed out of the game as one of the all-time greats. His career had its highs and lows, but he has always weathered the storm and came out a better player. His world record score of 400 not out in 2004 against England will forever be etched in the memories of cricket lovers around the world. Everyone knew he can bat for long period and doing so at the highest level is what Lara thrived on ever since he played First-Class cricket. His unbeaten 501 bares testimony to his temperament and his skills inculcated in him ever since he was a young boy, dreaming of representing his country at some point.
There were however many critics, claiming his knock of 400 not out as selfish. He was also accused of putting himself over his team. While there were people who believed that he wanted to reclaim the highest individual score in Tests, which Matthew Hayden had snatched away from him when he made 380 against Zimbabwe, just six months prior to Lara’s magical innings.

First it was the then Australia captain Ricky Ponting. One of the most successful skipper Ponting lashed out at Lara, mentioning that the Australians would never put individual records ahead of the team’s win.
“It’s hard to imagine an Australian player doing it,” Ponting told AAP.  ”It’s generally not the way we play our cricket. Their [West Indies] whole first innings might have been geared around one individual performance and they could have let a Test match slip because of it. They ran out of time in the game – that’s not the way the Australian team plays.”
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