Brian Lara was many things — a genius batsman, a record-breaker, a leader, a man capable of batting feats that defied human comprehension. But his running between wickets was sometimes an adventure that his partners didn't sign up for, a chaotic experience that combined Lara's supreme confidence in his own speed with a complete disregard for his partner's cardiovascular capacity.
One of the most comically bad mix-ups involved Jimmy Adams during a Test against Australia in Barbados. Lara pushed the ball to the off side and called for a run with the authority of a man who expected instant compliance. Adams responded, set off at a jog, then Lara changed his mind and sent Adams back. Adams turned, but so did Lara. Both batsmen ended up running to the same end, looked at each other with expressions of pure confusion, then both turned and ran towards the other end, then BOTH turned back again.
It was like watching two men try to pass each other in a narrow corridor — the universal human experience of going left when the other person goes left, then right when they go right, then standing still and staring at each other in mutual embarrassment. Except these two men were doing it on a cricket field, in a Test match, in front of thousands of spectators and a television audience of millions.
The Australian fielders, who should have been breaking the stumps during this extended exhibition of confusion, were momentarily paralyzed by laughter and bewilderment — which end do you throw to when both batsmen keep changing direction every half-second? By the time someone gathered their wits enough to throw, the damage was done. The clip is regularly featured in "cricket's worst running" compilations and stands as evidence that even geniuses can't always manage the simple task of running 22 yards without having an existential crisis about which direction to go.