Time for gentle persuasion

Reverend Wes Hall's task in Kingston tomorrow won't be easy.

The first time he meets with his players as the new president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Hall has to ease their understandable and publicly expressed fears about their safety on the forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka and explain why it neither could, nor should, be cancelled.

When he has done that, he then needs to take Brian Lara aside and have an earnest, honest talk with the troubled master batsman about his future in West Indies cricket that has become increasingly clouded by well documented mental and physical problems.

Hall is one of the most highly-respected figures in the game. He enjoys the respect of this generation of players as much of those of his own era.

He was a great fast bowler, a selector and a manager in two separate decades. He knows what it's like to run for your life from an angry crowd when 100 000 rioted in a Test match in Calcutta on New Year's Day 1967.

He and most of his teammates wanted to abandon that tour there and then until the wise counsel of Sir Frank Worrell presented them with sound reasons why they should stay.

So all those who listen to the new president at the Meridien Pegasus Hotel tomorrow, as he takes on Worrell's role, appreciate that Wes Hall has been there and done that.

Whether they will be swayed by the written assurances of the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board he has brought with him from the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur is another matter.

Hall will tell them that any tour of Sri Lanka, a country torn apart by a gruesome civil war for the past quarter of a century, is always potentially dangerous but that no touring cricket team or cricketer has ever been in peril.

He will make the point that Sri Lanka is not, in any way, involved in the present conflict in Afghanistan and, as he did in an interview from Kuala Lumpur last week, will say that he would feel far safer there at present than in England.

He will acknowledge that parliamentary elections, to be staged in the middle of the tour, are always flashpoints for increased violence but note that no matches have been scheduled in the three days before and after the polls.

And, as diplomatically as he can, he will point out that cancellation would mean the players forfeiting their tour fees and not only lose the WICB income, but probably entail a fine of up to US$2 million under the new tough ICC regulations that penalise countries that default on pre-arranged tours without justifiable reason.

Hall might cite the furore caused in the 1996 World Cup when Australia and the West Indies declined to play their scheduled matches in Colombo because, only three weeks earlier, a suicide bomber had driven a truck into the post office and killed 80 and injured over 1 000.

The Sri Lankan authorities then were highly indignant, more so as Zimbabwe and Kenya came to fulfil their engagements without trouble.

The World Cup committee considered a heavy fine for both defaulters but did not have the power to implement it, as the ICC now does.

Hall could also remind the younger players of the vital experience of different cricketing conditions they stand to gain in Sri Lanka.

In the end, however, each player must decide for himself.

At the same time as Hall discusses the issue with his men, Lord McLaurin, his equivalent in England, will be hearing the concerns of his team over a simultaneous tour of India.

Like captain Carl Hooper and Ramnaresh Sarwan, Graham Thorpe and Craig White have both spoken to the media of their worries. Others, on both sides, are known to be also troubled.

The hope is that Hall and McLaurin can put them at rest by persuasion, not intimidation. Any player who feels strongly enough not to go should be assured he will not be disadvantaged in future.

Last Thursday, six members of Chelsea, an English football team, remained in London while their team went to play a European Cup match in Tel Aviv, Israel, the world's most hazardous city. But UEFA, the governing body, determined the match had to go on. Replacements were sent and Chelsea lost 2-0.

Hall, in all good faith, has committed the West Indies to fulfilling their engagement in Sri Lanka. He now has to win the players over.

And, as hard as he can, he has to try to bring Lara's career back on track. Lara is only 32 but, at every turn, the evidence is that the rare talent with which the left-hander set Test and first-class record scores is rapidly disappearing into thin air.

In his other guise, as a servant of God, Hall's mission is saving souls. In the cricketing sense, Lara presents him with a challenge for which he is well prepared.