HIS leadership has been chided by some prominent former West Indies players but Brian Lara yesterday received support from one of England’s most renowned cricketers.
Lara is handicapped because he is leading a weak team and no one could do any better, Geoff Boycott contended in his column in the Daily Telegraph. But Boycott still advised the West Indies captain to consider quitting after the current series against England later this month.
“After this series finishes, he should reflect and give serious thought to giving it up,” Boycott wrote. “Not because of outside pressures but for the sake of his own peace of mind.”
“Quite frankly, the team he is leading simply isn’t good enough,” he added.
Boycott related Lara’s problems to his own when he was a similarly criticised captain of his English county team, Yorkshire.
“It’s a nightmare being the captain of a poor side when you’re the best batsman,” he noted. “I had it in the Seventies at Yorkshire when I took over from Brian Close with a side of youngsters. You try like heck but, in the end, it affects you and wears you down.”
He recalled that he was sacked as captain but that things didn’t get any better.
“They’ll get rid of Lara but the team won’t get any better, no matter who they give the job to,” he predicted.
Boycott based his views on his assessment of the West Indies team. “Which of the five fast bowlers would get into any other international team barring Zimbabwe and Bangladesh?” he asked. “What about the spinner, Omari Banks, and the all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo? The answer is none.” As far as the batting is concerned, Boycott claimed that Lara, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were the only ones capable of making runs.
He did not believe any new captain could make the West Indies do any better.
“Maybe Lara could set better fields and attack new batsmen more but whatever is agreed with the bowlers they have to have the ability to bowl to the field and, from what I’ve seen, they can’t do that,” he said. Two former England fast bowlers also commented on Lara’s problems.
“While few would argue that his brilliant batting has often made a naive and flaky team competitive, his captaincy has not been able to bind them together, at least not for the duration of a Test match,” Derek Pringle wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “Under Lara, their record abroad has been excreable. For most, it would be a resignation issue though Lara denied he had ever considered it,” he added. Writing in The Independent, Angus Fraser recognised that “this miserable run has naturally put Lara’s position under increased pressure and calls for his resignation are bound to increase.” But Fraser had sympathy for the captain.
“Lara may not be a natural leader of men but it is hard not to feel sorry for him,” he stated. “The left-hander is one of the greatest batsmen cricket has seen. He had played three or four of the best innings in the history of the game yet, on each occasion he is interviewed, he appears to be on the back foot, defending himself.”