Lara holds court

Q: Chanderpaul appeared to bat better once he got the runner. Why was that?

A: Ah. We need to trigger him off sometimes. He's probably something like what Gordon Greenidge did around 20 years back. (Limping on one leg, Greenidge hit an awesome 214 not out to storm West Indies to a victory at Lord's in 1984)

Q: Will winning the series in front of your home crowd be similar to T&T qualifying for the football World Cup?

A: Not really. We'll probably reserve that feeling for winning the cricket World Cup next year.

Q: Your impressions of Warner Park …

A: I played here 17 years ago when I had a wonderful time against a guy called [Narendra] Hirwani. But it didn't look like this. It's a great stadium now.

Q: Your reaction to Sachin Tendulkar missing out on this tour …

A: It's disappointing that he's not coming. We are all entertainers. It's a big loss to the Caribbean people, a big loss to viewing public. The likes of Sarwan and Chris Gayle have great respect for him. We [Sachin and Lara] do have matches to play against each other – in the ICC Champions Trophy, maybe in America. We want to win, but we want to win against the best team.