Cozier down under: Lame of the game

Hobart-Brian Lara just can't seem to shake the hamstring strain he sustained during the One-Day Internationals in England last July-five months ago.

The star left-hander has been unable to fully participate in training sessions, is below optimum physical shape as a result and left the field for the last hour on yesterday's opening day against Australia "A" here because of what captain Jimmy Adams described as soreness. "What we keep getting from the specialist is that this is the situation, this is the treatment, this is the time in which it takes for everything to come together," Adams said in relation to Lara's injury and some of the several that has reduced the team to 12 fit players.

"In one or two cases, it hasn't worked out in the way it was put across to us initially," he added. "That's not my area and I have to take the advice of the specialists, although it's disappointing."

He noted that, on return from the ICC Trophy tournament in Kenya in early October, specialists gave Lara two to three weeks to recover. In that time, he missed the Red Stripe Bowl prior to the current tour.

"We got to Australia in three-and-a-half weeks' time and it (the injury) is still niggling," Adams said.

"He's on another course of treatment now under which he is taking some injections. "They have a time frame by which they say it takes to kick in and we're just hoping that this one will get things going."

Such time frames mean that "it's worth [it] for us to have him here, get him ready and get him back on the park", the captain added. "Beyond that, there's not much that can be done with the information we're getting.

"I'd like to think that Brian would be fit for the Test match on Friday but, outside of that, it's just a case of monitoring the situation," he said. "I'm not going to make any statements as far as his rehab is concerned after he has taken treatment. That's for specialists and I'll take their word."

Batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo and fast bowler Merv Dillon are all receiving treatment for ankle strains, while fast bowler Nixon McLean is down with the flu.

Adams said team physiotherapist Ronald Rogers reported that Sarwan, Nagamootoo and Dillon should be fit in time for the third Test, starting in Adelaide on Friday.