Lara doubtful for Sri Lankan tour

For the second successive tour, Brian Lara's place in the West Indies team is in doubt because of a persistent right hamstring injury that the champion lefthander fears may be something more serious.

The selectors yesterday included Jamaican left-hander Wavell Hinds in the week-long, pre-tour camp in Kingston prior to the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka as cover in case Lara is forced to withdraw. It is the same injury that caused him to abort the tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya in early June. There was already a question mark over dependable wicketkeeper/batsman Ridley Jacobs who, like Lara, has been included in the squad of 16 but is carrying a damaged finger.

Although doctors have told Jacobs not to keep wicket during the camp, they have cleared him to bat and are confident he will be ready to resume duties behind the stumps by the time the tour starts November 4. As a precaution, Courtney Browne is also at the camp as standby.

Lara, 32, was scheduled to have a further examination on his leg by Dr Akshai Mansingh, of the University of the West Indies, yesterday afternoon after which a decision would be taken on his availability, chairman of selectors Mike Findlay said from Kingston yesterday.

The left-hander, who holds the record scores in both Test and first-class cricket, has been troubled by the injury since he suffered it during a match in June 2000 on the tour of England. He carried it through ten successive Tests and 14 One-Day Internationals on the tour of Australia between last November and January and subsequently against South Africa in the Caribbean.

But, after what he termed a long, frustrating period, he chose to follow the advice of several doctors and rest the injury when it did not improve. He returned home from Zimbabwe even before the tour had officially started and missed Trinidad and Tobago's trials for the recent Red Stripe Bowl.

According to Findlay, Lara complained again after four matches in the Bowl in Jamaica during which he received frequent ice and physiotherapy treatment.

Brian is concerned that he has seen so many doctors and that the injury is still taking so long to heal, Findlay said. He can't understand why it should be troubling him after all this time and is wondering whether it could be something other than the hamstring.

Findlay acknowledged that Lara's lay-off would be interpreted by some as a lack of motivation, especially since Lara took part in a golf tournament in Jamaica on Saturday and has been playing almost daily in Trinidad.

It is a feeling expressed recently by several close to the game, Trinidad and Tobago board president Alloy Lequay the most prominent among them.

Findlay dismissed such an assumption.

I sat down and discussed it with Brian and he is genuinely very worried that this may be something more serious than a muscle injury, he said. He wants to be at his best and is frustrated that this has handicapped him for so long.

Findlay said he had heard of no fitness concerns other than Lara and Jacobs.

The team's sports therapist will conduct fitness tests on all the players prior to their departure for Colombo on October 30.