Lara’s back, Hooper sacked
-Sarwan WI vice captain
Stabroek News
April 1, 2003
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - Double world batting record holder Brian Lara has been returned to West Indies captaincy for the Cable & Wireless home series against Australia and Sri Lanka.
The 33-year-old Lara, who previously led the West Indies in 1998 and 1999, replaces Carl Hooper, and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced other major appointments yesterday, including making Australian Bennett King the first ever foreign coach of the West Indies cricket team. The WICB named Ramnaresh Sarwan as vice-captain to Lara, and Gus Logie as King’s coaching assistant, while retaining Ricky Skerritt as team manager and formally appointing Roger Brathwaite as the board’s Chief Executive Officer. In the recent World Cup where the Hooper-led West Indies disappointingly exited at the first round stage, Lara was the most prolific scorer — with 248 runs — in the West Indies’ failed attempt at the 2003 World Cup. The selection committee recommended Lara for the job and after the WICB ratified it at a board meeting on Sunday, the famous Trinidadian left-hander embraced the post.
“At present it’s a great challenge. I see my responsibilities and I want to play a part,” Lara told reporters at Kensington Oval after Trinidad and Tobago crashed to a nine-wicket loss to Barbados in their Carib Beer International Challenge semi-final.
After two years in the job, a dejected Lara had resigned as West Indies captain at the start of the 2000 season following humiliating losses on tour of New Zealand where they were beaten 2-0 in the test series and 5-0 in the one-dayers. The world test (375) and first-class (501) batting record holder had said subsequently that he was not interested in the team’s captaincy, but has now reversed that position.
“It was a period of introspection — when I gave up the captaincy -and at present I think it will be a great challenge. “I’ve had two years of introspection, two years of looking and seeing where
I had gone wrong,” Lara said. “Now it’s a big challenge. I think it would be a dereliction of duty if I was presented the job and turned it down,” Lara added. Sarwan, a rising batting star in the side and leader in the team’s batting averages at the World Cup, will be Lara’s deputy in a move WICB President Reverend Wes Hall described as a “developmental plan”. “Sarwan’s performances on and off the field will obviously ensure him a long and successful future in West Indies cricket and his appointment is viewed as a development plan, we feel very confident about this young man,”
Rev Hall said at the press conference. Lara said he is prepared groom the 22-year-old Sarwan. “They’ve put him there to mould him as a future captain so I will do my best to ensure that I lead by example and ensure that I pass on a lot of knowledge to him,” Lara said. King gets the coaching appointment after Roger Harper did not seek to renew his contract, but will not be available immediately and Logie will assume coaching duties for the Cable & Wireless series starting with the first test against Australia on April 10 in Guyana. King, who had a coaching stint at the West Indies Shell Academy is an accredited Level III, has had huge success with Queensland in Australian cricket and is currently the Head Coach at the Australian Cricket Board Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy.
Reverend Hall said outgoing coach Roger Harper declined a request from the board to do stand-in duties until King became available.
The WICB accepted its appointment committee’s recommendation to
retain Skerritt as team manager, renewing a previous — three-year — contract that ended after the World Cup.
Brathwaite, the board’s Chief Marketing Executive, who had been acting as board’s Chief Executive Officer after Gregory Shillingford’s departure late last year, formally takes the top spot.
