A loser named Chanderpaul

He has been going through a rough patch ever since he went up to join the rest of the World side for the super series.

He has been getting a lot of flack from a has-been leg spinner Kerry "Skull" O’Keefe, and more recently Australia’s greatest Test Captain, Steve Waugh, who both claim that Lara is "past his best." Lara has been under intense pressure in the past and has risen against the odds to prove his worth (particularly in the ‘99 series vs Australia.

The strain that the recent impasse had on Lara showed when he played his first few innings in the Super Series. If Digicel again hadn’t raised their ugly heads maybe today he mightn’t have been in this situation. Brian is the sort of cricketer that needs to be playing continuous competitive cricket to have his form kept at a satisfactory level. With Digicel’s interference his form understandably dipped. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were coming to Trinidad, I personally don’t think that they’d have allowed him to play.

It sickens and saddens me to know that Digicel destroyed the team that Lara was building. After leading them to the ICC Champions Trophy last year, Brian was ensuring that this young team was gaining in stature and self confidence. That team from last year was starting the process of turning the corner, when in steps Digicel. Meritocracy and performance were no longer the order of the day, but instead allegiance to Digicel was.

They replaced a selfless leader who was starting to do the job and instead put a loser named Chanderpaul in charge. They started to put losers like Daren Powell in the team as well. I also fail to grasp why after the last dispute was resolved Chanderpaul wasn’t removed as skipper.

It is therefore high time that we start calling a spade a spade in West Indies cricket and we start to deal with the problems affecting our cricket. Rather than using the "It’s a young team, they’ll get better," excuse that seems to be readily accepted under Chanderpaul’s captaincy, we have to start demanding excellence from these guys and stop accepting mediocrity. Because if we continue to accept mediocre performances under a loser, we would then seriously destroy Windies cricket.

NAVIN T RAMKISSOON

Port-of-Spain