Rousseau: Lara's batting letting him down (12 January 1999)

12 January 1999

Rousseau: Lara's batting letting him down

The Jamaica Gleaner

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - Brian Lara faces an uncertain future as West Indies captain but much of the blame for his prolonged failure is due to his teammates, according to president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Patrick Rousseau.

Lara's captaincy will be reviewed at the end of the team's current tour of South Africa and before the start of the home series against Australia.

"A tour report and a meeting of the chairman and selectors will have to clarify his position," West Indies board chairman Rousseau told The Associated Press. He emphasised Windies captains "are only appointed one tour at a time," so the review was automatic and not a reflection on Lara.

"He's not batting as well as he did a year ago, when you look at his performance," Rousseau said. "He's not playing with the ease and confidence that I expect from Brian Lara, who has so much time to play the ball."

Asked whether Lara was affected by the captain's role, Rousseau said: "I don't think so. I don't know." The West Indies have lost the first four Tests in a five-match series against South Africa and Lara has failed to score a century in a year.

"Not only am I concerned, he is concerned. He's said it," Rousseau said. "He hasn't been as consistent as he usually is. He did a lot better against England last year." Rousseau said reports on the poor Windies performance on the South African tour from Lara, manager Clive Lloyd and coach Malcolm Marshall would all be considered before the future of the captaincy was reviewed.

One factor affecting the form of the champion was the failure of West Indies opening combinations.

"They have not performed on this tour and he is ending up as an opening bat when he really is a stroke player," said Rousseau. "He's more comfortable if he can get there with 60 or 70 runs on the board. I think you would see an improvement."

Rousseau said there was no pressure to remove Lara as captain but added, "If he were to say 'I think the captaincy's affecting my batting, I'd like to give it up for a period,' we certainly would acquiesce to that."

He said when a world champion batsman doesn't produce, it must affect the other batsmen psychologically. "It must affect them because usually you take your lead from how comfortably he plays."

The West Indies player strike over touring pay and conditions also could have affected him, "maybe it did affect him ... it must be a factor. I think it is." It was a worrying problem which had to be solved "before we take on the very tough Australians."

"They won't give an inch. We really try not to give them an inch either. It's going to be tough," Rousseau said.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)