Can Lara come back?

Sir Everton Weekes was only expressing what so many have increasingly dreaded.

We have seen the best of (Brian) Lara, Weekes, one of the greatest of the many great West Indian batsmen, said a few days ago of the latest in the lineage. He added, with typical understanding, and it's unfortunate to say that.

No batsman of the present generation, none, has given as much universal pleasure as the dynamic Trinidadian left-hander. None has been as capable of so clinically decimating bowling.

No one, of course, has scored as many as 375 in a single Test innings (April 1994) or matched the 501 not out he amassed in an English county match a few weeks later.

His 277 at Sydney in December, 1992, and his unbeaten 153 that almost single-handedly won the Test against Australia at Kensington two years ago were the stuff of dreams. They created memories to last a lifetime.

That is the background that prompted Sir Everton's adjective unfortunate.

It is the record of times past that encourages the hope, even against hope, that every new hundred marks a return to the Lara to whom hundreds once came as a matter of course.

The craving of West Indians to have Lara on song again was clear in the CMC report out of Kingston on Friday.

It said his 129 in the Red Stripe Bowl match against South Windwards signalled that he may not yet be past his best, even if it was in an incredible total of 409 for six in which two others hit centuries.

Lara, in the form and, more pertinently, the mood, he was against the Australians in 1999, and in the early years of his career, is to the West Indies team what an anabolic steroid is to a sprinter.

The form and the mood have become more and more spasmodic and everything seems to indicate that Weekes is right and that Lara's best is behind him.

Even those in authority in Trinidad, who once refused to appreciate the pressures of fame and fortune that were overwhelming their favourite son, now bemoan the decline that has seen his Test average drop from 60 to 48 in four years. They speak of a problem of attitude.

Alloy Lequay, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, told the Express newspaper last week that he agreed fully with Sir Everton.

Brian can give much to cricket and much is expected of him, he said. But he lacks focus and consistency and, at this point in time, there is no evidence of his return to his halcyon days.

Even if Lara now showed the necessary commitment, it would still be too late for him to rediscover his form that brought him two world batting records in 1994.

I think it is too late for that now, Lequay added. I think a change of attitude now will give him a longer cricket life but not the consistency which we saw in the 1993-1995 period.

Tony Gray, the former Test fast bowler and national coach who is currently attached to the national Under-19 team, also identified the main problem as Lara's motivational levels.

All of this has been obvious in recent times.

Lara gave up the captaincy and took a four-months break from the game last year. He opted out of the recent tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya, citing a persistent hamstring injury. He didn't play in any of Trinidad and Tobago's trials for the Bowl.

He is now at the age, 32, when he needs to pay more attention to fitness and practice. Those close to him report that he spends more time on the golf course, trying to master a game that has become an obsession, than in the nets.

Still, all is not lost. Carl Hooper has shown how a cricketing career can be turned around, even in the mid-30s.

He, too, was seldom at ease in the West Indies team. His commitment was questionable.

On the troubled 1995 England tour, he complained of frustration and mental and physical tiredness. Four years on, he suddenly retired. He was a troubled soul.

Yet he has returned, clearly changed. No longer is he frustrated or mentally tired. He has regained his desire and is relishing the captaincy, a role I, and several others, believed beyond his capacity.

We made our judgement on the previous Hooper. The new Hooper has proved that judgement hasty.

Marriage and strengthened Christian beliefs have been given by friends as two powerful reasons for Hooper's renaissance. There are other factors that can have the same effect and Lara may yet find them.

Perhaps he needs a strong talking to by someone he respects and will listen to, like the new West Indies Cricket Board president Reverend Wes Hall. Or like Curtly Ambrose.

When things were going especially badly on the 1995 tour of England, Hall, then manager, related an incident in his tour report when Ambrose told Lara: They cannot get you out unless you get yourself out. You are not the same man so get hungry.

So said so done. Lara followed with Test scores of 87, 145, 152, 20 and 179.

Can someone get the same response now or is it too late?