Captain's boots too heavy for Lara (4 February 1999)

4 February 1999

Captain's boots too heavy for Lara

Tony Cozier

When Brian Lara was first proposed by the selectors in place of the incumbent Courtney Walsh prior to the tour of Pakistan in 1997, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) turned them down and retained Walsh.

They eventually replaced Walsh with Lara a year ago prior to the home series against England which, under his captaincy, the West Indies won 3-1 in the Tests and 4-1 in the One-Day Internationals.

Lara's world, never stable since it was turned upside down by his phenomenal record-breaking feats in 1994, has been thrown into further turmoil here as one defeat has followed another. His own contribution with the bat has been well below his known standards and he has been put out of action by a chipped bone just above the right wrist.

His body language and batting form throughout the series (he averaged 31 in the five Tests against an overall 51 previously) and his frank revelations afterwards of disunity in the ranks revealed a troubled captain of a troubled team.

He has been clearly distressed by the outcome of his first overseas series as captain, and one of such significance, and his injury has made him an even more remote figure.

He did not travel to Tuesday's One-Day International with the team and was absent from the pre-match warm-up session and discussion on the ground, even though his damaged wrist would not have precluded him from participating. He is, after all, still captain.

It was an absence noted by the South African press and, no doubt, his players and those WICB representatives who had reservations about elevating him to the captaincy in the first place.

Throughout the tour, they, like everyone else in the Caribbean, have heard stories of rifts in the camp, of the captain's indifference, of the lack of spirit and much else. Initially, and predictably, denied by Lloyd, many were confirmed by Lara following the fifth Test defeat.

This is not the Lara of the 277 of Sydney or the 375 of St. John's nor the captain of his initial triumphant series against England last season. He has seemed weighed down by his responsibilities and his inability to turn around either his own form or that of his team.

He was seldom seen in the company of his players away from the cricket grounds, he indulged his passion for golf that few of his team-mates share and his infamous inattention to punctuality hasn't changed.

On the field, the ready smile and the unmistakeable Viv Richards swagger that were the previous hallmarks of his self-confidence were absent. Instead, he demoted himself from No. 3, a negative move, and his posture was mostly of a distracted young man, arms folded across his chest, rarely animated.

Yet, whatever his many faults, Lara remains the focal point of West Indies cricket, an extraordinary talent who is still capable of lifting an ordinary team by the sheer power of example.

An individualist, he is not a natural leader of men. That much has been obvious in the past three months, if not before. And it is a leader that West Indies cricket now needs most - just as it does Lara back to his batting best.

It is a complex combination those who initially recommend the captain for the Australian series and those who finally determine it on February 22 are charged to find.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)