London: English County side, Surrey, have confirmed that they are in talks with West Indian legend, Brian Lara, who is contemplating coming out of retirement to play for them in the Twenty20 season this year.

Lara, who retired from international cricket after the 2007 World Cup, has not played any competitive cricket since then.

“We have been in discussion with Brian regarding his possible involvement with the club,” a Surrey spokesman told the BBC. “However we have no further comment to make at this stage.”

In fact, Lara has already started practicing at The Oval this week and has had talks with Surrey’s cricket manager Chris Adams and chief executive Paul Sheldon.

Lara had recently hinted at his desire to play in the Indian Premier League and there were reports that he may be roped in by one of the two new franchisees for next year. The last time Lara played was in the rebel Indian Cricket League in 2007-08, where he had a forgettable tournament with the bat and as skipper of the Mumbai Champs.

Lara’s tally of 11,953 Test runs, at an average of just under 53 with 34 hundreds, is second only to that of India’s batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar. But it is Lara who still holds the world record for the highest individual Test score with 400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004. In the space of two months in 1994, Lara’s 375 and 501 not out (for Warwickshire against Durham in the English County Championship) broke world records for the highest Test and first-class scores respectively.

Surrey has already signed Andrew Symonds, the Australian all-rounder, for the domestic English Twenty20 competition, and – depending on his national commitments – Piyush Chawla, the Indian leg-spinner. The rules permit counties to enlist four overseas players, in all, for the tournament, with a maximum of two featuring in a single game.

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