For­mer West In­dies crick­et cap­tain Bri­an Lara has been giv­en an hon­orary doc­tor­ate by the DY Patil Uni­ver­si­ty in In­dia.

Lara, who is in In­dia, made the an­nounce­ment on his In­sta­gram page on Thurs­day morn­ing.

"What an amaz­ing ex­pe­ri­ence vis­it­ing the @dy­patilu­ni­ver­si­ty Cam­pus to­day and meet­ing Dr. Vi­jay D Patil and see­ing his work across sports, ed­u­ca­tion and health­care was phe­nom­e­nal. From the DY Patil Sports Sta­di­um, one of the great sta­dia that I have vis­it­ed and the @dy­patil­sport­sacad­e­my to the vis­it to the @dy­patilu­ni­ver­si­ty Med­ical Sim­u­la­tion Lab was ex­treme­ly fas­ci­nat­ing," Lara stat­ed.

"I am ho­n­oured! An Hon­orary Doc­tor­ate be­stowed on me by the Uni­ver­si­ty. WOW," he added.

Lara, who is pop­u­lar­ly nick­named "The Prince of Port-of-Spain", has been wide­ly ac­knowl­edged as one of the great­est bats­men of all time.

Former WI captain Brian Lara has been conferred an honorary doctorate by the DY Patil University in India.

He was award­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go's high­est award, the Trin­i­ty Cross (lat­er changed to the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go) in 2013.

He holds the record for the high­est in­di­vid­ual score in first-class crick­et, with 501 not out for War­wick­shire against Durham at Edg­bas­ton in 1994, and the record for the high­est in­di­vid­ual score in a Test in­nings af­ter scor­ing 400 not out against Eng­land at An­tigua in 2004.

Bri­an Lara was ap­point­ed hon­orary mem­ber of the Or­der of Aus­tralia on 27 No­vem­ber 2009.

On 14 Sep­tem­ber 2012 he was in­duct­ed to the ICC's Hall of Fame at the awards cer­e­mo­ny held in Colom­bo, Sri Lan­ka as a 2012–13 sea­son in­ductee along with Aus­tralians Glenn Mc­Grath and for­mer Eng­land women all-rounder Enid Bakewell.

In 2013, Lara re­ceived Hon­orary Life Mem­ber­ship of the MCC be­com­ing the 31st West In­di­an to re­ceive the hon­or.