West Indies: 'Glad He's With Us'

Jimmy Adams gave Brian Lara's return to the West Indies team an enthusiastic, unequivocal seal of approval yesterday.

'I'm very, very pleased to know that Brian is touring England,' the man who took over the captaincy when Lara resigned in February said while he and his team were preparing in Queen's Park for the second Test against Pakistan starting Friday. 'I'll keep repeating: it's just fantastic to know he's now part of the squad.'

Dismissing speculation that the temperamental master batsman would be a disruptive influence on a team that has found a new spirit under his own leadership, Adams said he and his players were confident 'of the positive contribution we know he will have on the team and the tour as a whole'.

'He's the best batsman we have available in the Caribbean,' he said. 'Not only as a batsman but as a senior player and as a person. We all look forward to him coming on the tour.'

After informing the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that he was unavailable for the England tour, Lara changed his mind last Wednesday, after the team of 16 was already picked but not announced. Chairman of selectors Michael Findlay hurriedly raised Adams and other members of the panel who agreed to Lara's late inclusion.

'Not only on behalf of the team but, personally, it's nice to have him back as well,' Adams said.

The two have been close since Adams first played under Lara's captaincy in the first youth World Cup in Australia in 1988. Earlier this season, Adams described Lara as 'like a brother, on and off the field'.

Adams played all his 39 Tests with Lara before Lara took his break from the game that kept him out of this season's home series against Zimbabwe and Pakistan 'to seek the assistance of appropriate professionals to rebuild all facets of my game'.

Adams said he last spoke to Lara during the first Test against Pakistan in Guyana when he was still uncertain about his position for the England tour. He had not been able to contact him since his decision to go.

Lara has not had any cricket since Trinidad and Tobago's last match in the Busta Cup 2000 series on February 8 and has only three weeks to get himself in shape before the tour starts with a three-day match against Worcestershire. It is less than a month before the first Test at Edgbaston from June 15 to June 19.

In that time, Lara has arranged to accompany his ailing mother, Pearl, to Miami to consult Trini-dad-born Dr. Ormond Mendes over her illness that precipitated Lara's initial doubts over the England tour.

'When everything is settled with his mother, he has indicated to us his willingess to look at the physical and technical aspects of himself in an effort to get himself into as good shape as possible at the beginning of the tour,' Adams stated.

Adams acknowledged that the WICB's denial of the selectors' request for the team to be increased to 17 was a limitation. But he made it plain he would not dwell on it.

'It would have been great to have had that 17th player as it would have made the workload a little easier for everybody else,' he said.

'But we have to look on the situation as we've looked on many situations so far this season, that it is not to be,' he added. 'We just have to keep on playing good cricket, irrespective of how many people we have available.

'We will find a way, not to worry,' was his assurance. 'The powers that be must have had very good reasons for not allowing it so we have to go ahead with the 16.'

It means that Ridley Jacobs is the only specialist wicket-keeper chosen, leaving Adams himself and Wavell Hinds to alternate when Jacobs is rested during a three-month tour featuring five Tests, six or seven One-Day Internationals and nine first-class matches.

Adams has kept for Jamaica and in One-Day Internationals before but not since the 1996 World Cup. So has he been sharpening up in the nets?

'Not really,' he chuckled. 'But some things you never lose so I hope I fall into that category.'