Richardson disagrees with Lara' s appointment

Richie Richardson, the former West Indies captain, says he disagrees with Brian Lara's appointment to the job for a third time and would prefer to see Ramnaresh Sarwan given the job.

Speaking to the Saturday Sun, Richardson, who led West Indies between 1992 and 1996 when Lara was at the start of his career, said the current vice-captain would have made a better option. "If you're investing in the future and you're thinking beyond World Cup, you would have given it [captaincy] to a younger player," he said. "I thought that Sarwan would have got it [captaincy]...I don't see the point of having him as vice-captain if you're not going to give him the job at some stage. But at the end of the day, whoever is given the job, we've got to support the team."

Richardson said that Lara's appointment was not a solution to West Indies' problems. "I have no problem with Brian Lara as captain but he's coming to the end of his career," he said. "West Indies cricket is at the bottom and looking to come up. You've got to think about the future. You've got to invest in younger players and give them a chance. We seem to want to get instant results. We've got to forget about that. We've got to realise that our cricket is in disarray. We need to create a solid foundation and build from that."

Lara, who turns 37 on Tuesday, previously led the side between 1998 and 2000 and again between 2003 and 2005, but enjoyed modest results with ten wins and 23 defeats in 40 Tests.

Sarwan, the vice-captain for the better part of the last three years, was believed to be a contender for the captaincy, as was Sylvester Joseph, who successfully led the A team against England recently. "He [Joseph] is highly respected as a captain throughout the region. I would have loved to see Joseph doing it, but he's not in the team and it's just hard to bring somebody from outside just as captain," Richardson said. "It would have been nice if he was scoring a lot more runs and in the team. Naturally he'd be the one."

The West Indies host Zimbabwe for a seven-ODI series starting in Antigua today.