The sun is setting on Lara's career
By Tony Cozier
Stabroek News
December 17, 2006
BRIAN LARA'S statement during the week that he is unlikely to subject his body any more to the rigours of limited-overs cricket after next year's World Cup in the Caribbean was no more than confirmation of what was already widely known.
He indicated as much at the end of the New Zealand tour in March and, had it not been for his recall for a third spell as captain a few weeks later, he would almost certainly have restricted himself to Test cricket on the lead-up to the World Cup.
Instead, he has had 27 One-Day Internationals in four different countries over the past eight months and they have taken toll of muscles, bones and mind now in their 38th year.
Four more ODIs in India at the end of next month precede the World Cup after which it will be time to leave the all-action pressure of the shorter game to younger men.
All of which is understandable and hardly unexpected.
More to the point, Lara's declaration has once more borne out the unbearable truth that the sun is setting on the career of the most remarkable and dynamic batsman of his era.
That, in turn, raises an obvious question.
Who will become the standard bearer of West Indies batting when he departs, perhaps after the next home series in 2008 against Australia when he will be 39, possibly even earlier, given the state of his back and knee?
As the receptions he received everywhere on the long journey across Malaysia, India and Pakistan over the past three and a half months showed, it will be a heartbreaking moment for the game globally whenever he goes. So it is with all sporting champions, especially those who leave such a host of records and memories.
West Indies cricket will surely survive without him. It has even won without him in those times when he has been absent, for one reason or another. But who will be the heart of the batting when he is gone, the one off whom the others feed, the one whose very reputation intimidates the opposition?
From their earliest days in Test cricket, the West Indies have always had such a batsman, many times more than one. A worthy successor to Lara would retain the legacy.
In the formative years, in the 1930s, George Headley carried an inexperienced, mainly amateur team on his shoulders to such an extent that he was known as "Atlas". He averaged over 60 before the outbreak of the second World War when he was at his peak, scoring 10 hundreds in 15 Tests, as many as all his teammates combined.
When Test cricket resumed nine years after Headley's previous appearance, he was past his best. The void was immediately filled by the Three Ws, the Barbadians with the same first initial of their surnames, Worrell, Weekes and Walcott, who became the most famous and prolific batting triumvirate the game has known.
Their exits exactly coincided with the emergence of another group of batting maestros, headed by the most extraordinarily talented all round cricketer of all time.
As soon as Sir Garry Sobers, "the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars", and Rohan Kanhai departed, another, equally brilliant collection of batsmen took their place, Clive Lloyd, Roy Fredericks, Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran were first, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and company followed.
Richards and Greenidge made their exits in 1991, leaving the stage almost exclusively to Lara with his unprecedented scoring, his fist of world records and his compelling genius.
It remains an inexplicable travesty that his career should have corresponded with the most depressing times in West Indies cricket.At least, his exploits have eased the disappointment.
So who is next? Who can lift the collective gloom with their individual brilliance?
On all the current evidence, the plain, unpalatable answer is no one. There is not a young batsman anywhere in the West Indies at present with a record that even hints he can come close to matching the impact of Lara and the earlier icons.
Perhaps it is too much to expect such an astounding sequence to be maintained. Yet there are a two with the class, talent and time and another with the power and confidence to take up the slack over the next 10 years.
All are in their mid-20s and all were recognized so early they were thrust into the West Indies team at 19. Sadly, all are yet to fulfil their potential.
Chris Gayle, now 27, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, 26, both have more than 60 Tests to their name. No one in the contemporary game strikes the ball harder than the left-handed Gayle, no one has a more stylish touch than Sarwan. Yet both are inconsistent and both disappointingly average under 40.
Sarwan is vice-captain but, after seven years in the team, was dropped in the recent series against Pakistan and publicly told to go and "reflect" on his career.
Marlon Samuels is 25 and his performances have been even more erratic than the others. His fitness is so suspect and his attitude so scrutinized that he has had only 23 Tests in six years. His average of 28 with a solitary hundred in 41 innings tells a sorry story.
Still, Samuels is the most talented of the three, a slim, elegant right-hander with the rare gift of timing that differentiates the extraspecial player from the rest.
Every now and again, as he did with his unbeaten 100 in an ODI against Pakistan last weekend, he reveals the quality that mark him as the likeliest to fill the No.4 spot once Lara is gone. The problem is the long gaps between the now and the again and the doubts over his desire to convert his ability into performance through hard work and commitment.
Samuels' first Test and ODI hundreds were three years ago in India, the latter so exceptional they put it on a DVD. Just over a year ago, on the tour of Australia, his 257 against Queensland (with Test bowlers Mitchell Johnson, Michael Kasprowicz, Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds in the attack) was batting of which only Lara and those of that ilk are capable.
In between, his returns have been minimal, his approach bordering on the indifferent.
He spoke after last week's hundred of his desire to hold down the No.4 position, a pivotal spot mostly occupied by Lara in recent times. But Samuels will have to earn it, not by spasmodic scores but through consistency.
It might be that, when Lara is no longer around to shoulder the burden, the younger players will more readily accept their responsibility to take the lead in conjunction with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the other reliable over-30 who is so often the solid foundation on which West Indies build totals.
Events in Karachi over-night, when Chanderpaul made 101 and Lara 44 out of a total of 238 for seven, exposed the continuing dependence on the team's two eldest batsmen. It is time for the juniors to make their mark.
They would do well to take the lead from a number of Australians who have been in similar positions, have lost their places in the team and have come back wiser and more prepared to handle their roles.
Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and the now retired Damien Martyn all had to spend time on the outside after faltering after their early introduction to Test cricket. All bumped their average to above 50 on their return.
Michael Clarke, the new Australian golden boy, announced his arrival with a hundred on debut at the age of 21. Two years later he was dropped after a string of impetuous dismissals and low scores.
Presented with the chance to return only because Shane Watson was injured, Clarke's mind was so concentrated by his setback that he has reeled off two successive hundreds in the current Ashes series.
Now 25, he is the batsman of the future in an Australian team in which everyone else is over 30.
Those West Indians of similar vintage need to recognize that they too are the future, a future soon without Lara.