Lara's future as West Indies captain on the line (10 January 1999)
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan 10 (AFP) - West Indies Cricket Board chairman Patrick Rousseau said Monday there were no plans to sack Brian Lara as captain if the team suffers a whitewash on their first tour of South Africa
10-Jan-1999
10 January 1999
Lara's future as West Indies captain on the line
AFP
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan 10 (AFP) - West Indies Cricket Board
chairman Patrick Rousseau said Monday there were no plans to sack
Brian Lara as captain if the team suffers a whitewash on their first
tour of South Africa.
But he did admit Lara's future as captain hinged on the reports of
tour manager Clive Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall.
"I don't know if the captaincy is affecting him as it does with most
people who take on that responsibility," Rousseau said.
"This is only his second tour as captain. There were some problems
adjusting but I don't know if that is still the case."
Rousseau, here for the International Cricket Council meeting, said the
problems over the contract which led Lara to delay the tour had been
resolved.
The West Indies have already lost the first four Tests in South Africa
and Lara, world Test record scorer, has struggled with the bat.
Rousseau blamed the West Indies openers.
"If the openers are not batting it means he and Chanderpaul become the
opening bats and that's pretty tough on them as they're stroke
players," he said.
The West Indies have engaged legendary openers Gordon Greenidge and
Desmond Hayes in a bid to remedy the problems.
Rousseau blamed the decline of the great West Indian teams on the
run-down in school cricket in the Caribbean.
"We have started programmes to get cricket back in the schools over
the last three or four years but it wwill take time," he said.
Source :: AFP