Brain Lara questions West Indies cricket operations

West Indies won four of their last seven series.

Sep. 23, 2014

Brian Lara hints at big changes for the West Indies cricket management. Being concerned for the team, the former West Indies batsman has called for major changes in the organisation before the visit by England for a three-match Test series scheduled to be played during the spring, next season.

Lara said, “For me, West Indies’ problems don’t lie with the players. It’s far deeper than that, with the organisation, what they are doing to enhance our cricket from a very low level. What you see on the surface, it’s what our cricket is all about, which is not a lot of fabric in it. Until we start doing that -then you can look at the players and make them responsible for their performances.”

“You look at some of our players; they are the most sought-after players in the IPL – the likes of Sunil Narine, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard – why as a team you can’t put it together? I believe the structure they are playing in, away from home, seems to be a little more organised than what they are accustomed to.” he added.

Since 1995, the Windies have played 31 Tests, but have managed to win only 13 (42%). But in the following 10 years, they managed to win only 9 (19%) of the 31 Tests they played. They also had a winless run during the period from 2005 to 2009.

Although throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Lara played for the Windies. However, they won four of their last seven series against Bangladesh (2), New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

Lara also praised England on its victory against India in the Test series where captain, Alastair Cook’s leadership was heavily questioned at the initial stages.

Lara said, “I think it was a great fightback. First of all I was very happy to see Alastair Cook stuck it out and he handled his responsibility which is most important. He could not really chart his own course, he had the support of the team, the backing of the selectors and the board and the public – they were on his back for some time.”

“It was nice to see England come back under his leadership and hopefully they can take it on to another level because they are a little in the midst of a transition, where they lost a couple of players, they tried to form a new team and it’s a bit difficult especially when your star players aren’t around.” he quoted.