The news that a 14 year-old boy scored 404 not out in a Trinidad under-15 schools game highlighted the contrast with the English age-group system, which is trapped in 20-overs cricket.

The vast majority of youth players in the UK outside the independent school circuit do not have the chance to play longer cricket at this age, though Kirstan Kallicharan's innings was truly remarkable for even a 35-over game.

Kallicharan – the spelling confirms he is not connected with the West Indies and Guyana left-hander Alvin Kallicharran – came in at No 3 and hit 31 sixes to cement a burgeoning reputation already sky high as captain of Trinidad and Tobago Under-15. He was playing for Vishnu Hindu College in a PowerGen Secondary Schools Cricket League play-off.

The comparisons with Brian Lara seems valid because Kallicharan has eased past Lara's competition record score of 168 three times in the past year. Kallicharan told the Trinidad Express: “At the beginning I was just batting normal, just aiming to make a hundred, but when I got to my century I realised I could score more and more and I just continued to bat.”

His school coach Tarandath Sammy said: "Before the game, we were discussing the batting order and I asked him if he wanted to open the batting, but he said he wanted to give the other boys a chance.”

Andrew Flintoff once smashed 222 as a 13 year-old in a 20-overs game for St Annes CC in the ECB's national club competition. So he had the ability and not the opportunity to conjure up an enormous score.

India is best known for longer youth games and the occasional freak performances. In November 2006 St Peter's High School under-14s hit 721 for 0 in 40 overs at Hyderabad, with Mohammed Shaibaz on 324 and Mannoj Kumar 320, though the quality of their opponents' bowling could be judged by their batting - St Phillip's High School 21 all out.

The more famous 664-run school partnership by Sachin Tendulkar (326) and Vinod Kambli (349) in a time game occurred in Mumbai back in February 1988. Both batsmen from Shardashram Vidya Mandir went almost seamlessly into Test cricket for India, though Kambli's career could not be compared with Tendulkar's.

Their opponents, St Xavier's, had the future India seamer Sairaj Bahutule in their attack, so this stand was seriously impressive. Kambli recalled that he and Tendulkar “toyed” with the bowling. “After every boundary and six, we would sing Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go,” he said.

Unfortunately for historians and memorabilia lovers the original scoresheet was not preserved by the Mumbai School Sports Association. To media outrage it was destroyed, with association secretary HS Bhor not sharing any sense of history. “The score sheet was kept along with all the other records of games and has since been incinerated as we could not store them all,” he said. “You cannot expect us to store files that are 25 years old.”