Lara prefers one captain for all forms
From Trinidad Express
‘SHARED CAPTAINCY NOT IDEAL’: Brian Lara
Former West Indies skipper Brian Lara says having separate West Indies for different forms of the game is not the “perfect situation.”
Currently Darren Sammy captains the Caribbean team in Test matches and One-day internationals, while Dwayne Bravo took over from Sammy as One-day international skipper this year.
Speaking to the media last week, Lara said: “ If that is the option at the present time so be it, but it should not affect how a team performs.
“Ideally you would like to have someone who can handle all three forms of the game but you are a professional. If you look at it in that way, you are a member of the team, be it just the Test team or just the Twenty20 team, you have to perform, you have play as a professional and I believe what is helping us at the moment is the fact the franchise cricket has really made a statement and a lot of the guys are professionals outside the realm of West Indies cricket and they see themselves as professionals.”
The West Indies Test skipper Darren Sammy got the thumbs up from Lara who said the St Lucian has matured a lot from the player he captained during his time.
“I think he has done a very good job,” Lara said of the 29-year-old who took over the reins from Chris Gayle.
“The Darren Sammy I knew in the team I led is a guy who has matured a lot. “He knows his capabilities and he knows the parameters of his game and he has done pretty well.
“He seems to be someone who is very humble, it is written all over his face, but he seems like someone who can really motivate his team and he has done pretty well. It does not say that Dwayne Bravo cannot do the same thing. Credit again to him and hopefully he can carry on to better things,” Lara added.
Lara was also impressed by Chris Gayle’s leadership of the Jamaica Tallawahs team during their successful Limacol Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 campaign and wants the player to be a leader in the West Indies dressing room as well.
“What I must say though is that he has gained a lot of respect from me for his victory with the Tallawahs. The way he led the team I am almost sure that his strike rate was nowhere near some of his other teammates but the responsibility rests on his shoulders and the way he handled it was tremendous and that says something about the individual.
He added: “Hopefully we can get that contribution that he has made as a leader with the Jamaican team in the Twenty20 tournament as one of the leaders in the West Indies team. You don’t necessarily have to be the leader in the team or the captain of the team but as long as you are one of the senior players on the team you can have great effect on the entire way the team performs.”
Lara also expects a tough contest for the regional side in their two-match Test series against India in November but believes the Windies have the talent to do well.
“It is always tough in India,” said Lara, adding “it is not an easy proposition going down there and winning series, cricket matches or Test matches.
Speaking about the tour, the double world batting record holder said: “First of all, Sachin (Tendulkar) is such a great player and I am sure they want to give him a perfect sendoff if he is really retiring, I am not sure.
The second Test of the series is set to be Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th Test.
“Looking at West Indies cricket and what we have…the likes of Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, the Bravo brothers (Dwayne and Darren Bravo) and (Sunil) Narine, I think we’ve got a formidable group of players and we can squeeze something out of the series such as that,” said Lara.
“The commitment and the way the guys go out there to play is very important. Switching from one form of the game to the next is something that takes a lot of commitment and a lot of discipline and we’ll see if they are capable,” he added.
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