Lara loses captaincy

The sponsorship imbroglio that threatened to rip West Indian cricket apart is seemingly over, but it has cost Brian Lara his captaincy, at least for the moment. Lara is among the four players involved in the sponsorship controversy to have been named for the second Test against South Africa starting April 8, but Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been retained as captain for the entire series.

Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo are the other players who are back in the fold, at the expense of Daren Ganga, Donovan Pagon and Narsingh Deonarine who were part of playing XI for the first Test.

Michael Carew, the convener of selectors, said he and his panel were pleased with the team's overall performance in the first Test and he expected that the "team will go from strength to strength as the series progresses.

"Coach Bennett King must be one of the happiest men in the Caribbean present," Carew said, "given the talent that has been on display. He must also be quite optimistic with the cricket World Cup in mind and even beyond that."

Lara, who has captained West Indies in 40 out of his 112 Tests, had earlier declined an invitation to be part of first Test on the grounds that he wanted the selectors to pick the best possible West Indies team. Lara and six others were contracted to Cable & Wireless, business rivals to Digicel, the official sponsors of the West Indian cricket team. The matter was finally resolved with Cable & Wireless releasing Sarwan, Gayle, Bravo and Fidel Edwards.

West Indies squad Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Ryan Hinds, Courtney Browne (wk), Dwayne Bravo, Daren Powell, Pedro Collins, Reon King, Dwight Washington.