Caribbean media out to crucify skipper Lara

Former South African all-rounder Eddie Barlow called on Lara to quit before the daunting home series against Australia starting in March.

“The player who believes he should be captain invariably fails,” Barlow wrote in a newspaper column.

“I put Lara in this category. His performances since grabbing the captaincy have been poor…My advice to Lara would be to relinquish the captaincy and return to being the world’s best batsman.”

A scathing editorial in the Barbados Advocate traced the tour’s unhappy fate to a players’ strike at a hotel near London’s Heathrow Airport which delayed the historic first visit by a West Indies team to the republic.

The editorial accused theWest Indies of having “washed their dirty linen across the Atlantic Ocean” and holding the West Indies Cricket Board to ransom.

“They have now put their value to current and potential sponsors at risk. This, contrary to some of the idealistic utterances circulating among the innocent, is critical to the board’s ability to meet even the most basic payroll obligations.”

“Lara’s chief collaborator in confrontation with the board is Carl Hooper, a player so stingy in demonstrating his widely acknowledged talent that it would not be unreasonable to demand a refund of some portion of his match fees.”

“For all his enormous gifts as a batsman, Lara has been spoiled rotten by an adoring public and by compatriots who precipitately conferred on him honorary royal status (Prince, they call him) with bounty to suit.”

Lara said he had no intention of resigning.

“I’m a learning captain,” he said. “It is not a case of wanting to captain the West Indies, it is a duty and an honour.”

Lara conceded onMonday that rumours of rifts in the side were true.

“The unity needs to be much better,” Lara said. “As a team I would prefer to have the guys tight together off the field and things would then work much better on it. You have got to remember that we are all from different islands and we all have slightly different backgrounds.”

Lara openly lobbied for the job of West Indies’ skipper and, after succeeding Jamaican fast bowler Courtney Walsh, made a promising enough start with a series win over England last year.

South Africa at home were a different matter.

“The figures suggested that the West Indies had two dangerous bowlers in Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh,” said South African captain Hansie Cronje. “So it was important that they didn’t cause too much damage to our batting.”

Ambrose and Walsh, now in the twilight of their careers, performed heroically but the back-up bowling was thin and the batting woeful, with Lara himself reduced to playing cameos which briefly dazzled but had nolasting effect.

One player who did enhance his reputation was Ridley Jacobs, who seized his chance by keeping wicket efficiently and batting defiantly down the order.

“We seemed to have at last found a wicketkeeper who has a level head, can bat and keep wicket well enough to merit a place on the team,” said Windward Islands Cricket Board chairman Lennox John.

“But the others have not really come out smelling like roses.”