Lara: I'm the man to lead WI

Brian Lara has again rejected any suggestion that there should be different captains for Test and One-Day International cricket.

First of all, a captain is not one who leads different teams the, West Indies captain in both forms of the game told former Australian batsman David Hookes in an interview in the latest edition of the Red Stripe Caribbean Cricket Quarterly.

If you're going to lead men, it cannot be in one aspect of the game and not the next, he said. If the day comes when I realise I can't handle the job 100 per cent then it would be time to give way to someone else.

But, at this point in time, I believe I can do justice to the position and lead the West Indies out of the bit of a slump we are in and into something that we're accustomed to.

Lara did acknowledge that Australia's decision to replace then Test captain Mark Taylor with Steve Waugh for One-Day Internationals was a successful thing for Australian cricket at the time. But he made it clear it was not a situation he agreed with.

Trinidad and Tobago's coach, former West Indies opening batsman Bryan Davis, is among those who have recently raised the possibility of Lara being relieved of the captaincy for One-Day Internationals.

In the Hookes interview, Lara also revealed that he had been in a very weak position since the South African tour when the West Indies were trounced 5-0 in the Tests and 6-1 in the One-Day Internationals.

The consequence was that his leadership was publicly criticised by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) which placed him on a two-match probation.

I must admit that, after the South African tour, with the issue of probation, it's not going to be the same as West Indies captain, knowing what's going on in West Indies cricket, he said.

Hopefully, the trust will come back between the board, the players, myself and everybody where we can have a unified effort towards the future.