Lara's men fight to stay afloat (19 November 1998)

19 November 1998

Lara's men fight to stay afloat

By Tony Cozier

IF we are to believe what Barrie Gill tells us, the recent standoff with the West Indies Board is "only the first skirmish".

There may be more trouble to come but the reinstated captain knows that the recent sensational happenings around Heathrow airport have put even more pressure on him and his team to perform in the series in South Africa.

All the support and understanding they have got from their supporters back home would soon turn to anger and criticism if there is a repeat of the shocking drubbing in Pakistan a year ago.

Lara himself has immediately set out to lead from the front with his hundred in the opening first-class match against Grigualand West. His vice-captain Carl Hooper has followed.

The skipper makes a telling point when he says the standoff with the board has had a critical, beneficial side-effect.

"What we've gained (from the events in London) and which is very important is a tighter team unit," he said in an interview here over the weekend.

"Those five or six days made us a very close team unit.

"This is an area where we have to improve to beat South Africa because their team unity is excellent; you can't get higher than that," he added.

"If we can improve on this (aspect), and with our natural ability, we've got a team capable of coming out on top."

The new cohesion Lara spoke of was obvious and took the board aback.

It was not that long ago when Courtney Walsh, skippering Jamaica, pointedly sent out his vice-captain to toss with Lara in a Red Stripe Bowl match at the height of the debate over who should be West Indies captain.

And while it was pure nonsensical tittle-tattle that accused Lara of deliberately not trying under Walsh in Pakistan, it just showed what the public perception was of the relationship between the two.

Now they and the other players were at one on a serious issue that could have torn them apart-and, given agent Gill's pessimistic prediction, may yet tear West Indies cricket even more asunder than it has been so far.

There are recent precedents for such solidarity, each time springing from a confrontation with the establishment.

Like now, the bottom line was money or, more precisely, lack of it although a large measure of mistrust between players and board was also a significant factor.

The West Indies players were never more closely bonded than they were under Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket banner, a campaign that cast the players as traitors in the eyes of the establishment at the time but which proved to be a catalyst for much needed change.

From that experience, Clive Lloyd developed a closely-knit team that was invincible throughout the 1980s.

During that time, those on the underpaid fringes of the Test team were seduced by the financial enticement of white cricket in apartheid South Africa.

They were called rebels and rightly and predictably condemned.

It was antagonism that brought them closer together than they might otherwise have been and, even as the equivalent of the West Indies "A" team, they drew the first series and won the second against the cream of South African cricket at the time-Graeme Pollock, Clive Rice and all.

Now Lara and his team, badgered from all sides to make this tour, still at daggers drawn with the West Indies Board if Gill is to believed and none too popular with the South African authorities, are in a similar boat.

Against opponents desperate to reverse their dismal loss to England, it is either all pull together or else all sink.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)