Sir Garry To Help Lara (2 December 1998)

2 December 1998

Sir Garry To Help Lara

By Tony Cozier

JOHANNESBURG - Brian Lara has accepted Sir Garry Sobers' offer to work with him prior to the second Test against South Africa to help sort out what Sobers yesterday called "a little problem with his technique".

"I had a word with him last night and I tried to see which way I can help him," the former West Indies captain, in South Africa on Barbados Government business, said.

"I promised that if I get the opportunity, in Port Elizabeth (venue for the Test starting on December 10), I would go into the nets and have a look at him and some of the others and he said he would appreciate that."

"I made him understand that I'm not trying to encroach on anybody else's territory but I just want to do it in the interests of West Indies cricket," he added.

Pointing out that Lara was the key to the West Indies building match-winning totals, Sobers said he was confident he would "come good".

"Once Brian comes good, South Africa are going to be in for a lot of trouble because a lot depends on our batting.

"The only way we're going to beat South Africa is by making runs. You can't beat good teams making 260s and 170s."

The living legend has had a close affinity with Lara - like himself a brilliant, stroke-playing left-hander - from his youth.

He was in Antigua in 1994 to acclaim Lara's 375 which eclipsed his own record Test score of 365 not out.

Sobers, who watched play during all five days of the Test that the West Indies lost by four wickets, said he detected two main problems that might explain the recent slump in Lara's previous heavy scoring.

"These things do happen to batsmen of Brian's class but they have been going a long time for him," he said.

Lara has now had nine Tests without a hundred and his average over his last 22, dating back to the series in Australia in 1996-97, is 37.05 against an overall 50.75.

"I also spoke with him about it in England (last summer during his season with county team, Warwickshire) and told him that I thought he was following the ball in the air and not watching it off the wicket, in other words, playing too early," Sobers said.

Sobers said Lara acknowledged that as one of the problems, as he felt he wasn't moving his feet properly, a natural result of playing too early.

"I also mentioned to him that I thought his backlift was a little too high in defence," Sobers added.

"In defence, you're not playing shots so you don't need a big backlift. The further the bat has to come, the more mistakes you're going to make. The shorter the distance, the better it is."

As Lara had noted that he has always used that method, Sobers said he advised him to go into the nets to "simply give it a try".

"I told him to see how he felt with it," he added. "If you find you can't work with it, then forget it because you've got to feel comfortable.

"Anything you try you've got to be happy that it fits into your game."

Sobers said they had spoken about Lara's dismissals in the Test.

He pointed out that in the first innings, when Lara played on to Shaun Pollock, his bat had come down "from somewhere about second slip across the line of the ball".

"A lot of batsmen are playing that way, not him alone," he said. "I don't know if it comes from One-Day cricket where they're trying to improvise, taking the ball from outside off-stump to hit through mid-wicket and that sort of thing.

"Not realising this, they may now go into Test matches with a similar technique and take it for granted."

Sobers and director of the National Sports Council Erskine King are in South Africa promoting international sporting events in Barbados for the year 2000.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)