Lara says passion to play for West Indies most important

The Caribbean batting great says the players, under fire for Test debacles, must first have “cricket at heart”

MUMBAI: There’s nothing more painful in cricket than seeing the decline of West Indies from the dominating force they were in the 1970s and 1980s. After a 3-0 series whitewash against Australia two months ago, they lost to India by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the Ahmedabad Test.

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar (L) presents the lifetime achievement award to ex-West Indies stalwart Brian Lara at the CEAT awards in Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI)

They had sunk to a new low of 27 all out in the first innings of the Jamaica Test against Australia in July. Desperate to stem the rot, Cricket West Indies (CWI) had called for an emergency meeting of all stakeholders. Former skipper Brian Lara met with other Windies cricket legends and administrators in August to address the team’s abysmal performance.

One of the points to come out of the meeting was the need to seek ICC’s help to arrange finances.

Lara, who was in Mumbai on Tuesday, said the issue is not just about lack of finance. He pointed out that when West Indies ruled the game, they didn’t have better facilities than at present. It was about the passion to play for West Indies.

Batting has been a bigger worry. In Ahmedabad, they crashed to 162 and 146 all out. They have some good young batters like Alick Athanaze, who was the only one to put up any fight with a dogged 38 in the second innings, but how to get the batters to play consistently?

“I believe that if a player is being picked on potential only and does not have the stats to go with it, it is very difficult for him now to get to this higher level. I believe that because of that situation you would find players that are maturing later on. So, either you stick with them, age 22-25, hopefully reap the benefit when they get into their late 20s, or you look at players that are seasoned, Jason Holder, and the guys who may have matured.

“So you are going to find, once in a lifetime, the Tendulkars. Age 16, 17, Afridi, the Garfield Sobers, who were in their teens, they were able to cope with it immediately. Everybody is not going to be blessed with that sort of talent. I would like to see a stronger first-class performance before you get into the international scene. Back in my day you had to break records. You sat and watched cricket for two years, 20 Test matches, carry the towel, carry the water, before you finally got in. And during that period of time, you grew, you matured. And some mature faster than others,” the former West Indies captain said.