PONTING'S POOR TASTE

Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting's criticism of West Indies captain Brian Lara's 13-hour, 400-run stand against England in the recent Fourth Test in Antigua, inferring that Lara had jeopardised his team's chance at victory, was not only in poor taste, but sounded a lot like sour grapes. Lara's 400 had regained for him the title of batsman with the highest individual Test score, in the process nudging aside Australian batsman, Matthew Hayden, whose 380 against Zimbabwe in October at Perth had enabled him to wrest the title from Lara, albeit temporarily. Lara had first won it ten years ago in April of 1994 with 375 not out, both in Antigua and against England!

Ponting's comment that few (Test) captains would jeopardise a winning position by allowing one player to bat for so long was unconvincing, perhaps even to himself. And although Australia had gone on to win the Perth Test against Zimbabwe, while the West Indies-England match was drawn, was Ponting's statement made merely because Lara had regained the title, and from an Australian? Specifically, did his admission that Hayden had been "given the opportunity to go on and break Brian's record and he did that" expose the real intent of his criticism of Lara?  Was Ponting saying that it was allright where Australian batsman, Hayden, was concerned, but all wrong for Lara?

And even though achieving the title of world record individual Test score holder is important, regardless against which side it is made, it was clearly far more difficult for Lara to have retrieved the crown against an England side that had the West Indies reeling at three-nil, than it would have been for Hayden against Zimbabwe. What Ponting appears to ignore conveniently is that even with Lara's spending almost 13 hours at the crease and declaring just after lunch on the third day, the West Indies had been able to trundle out England in the first innings for 285, and had seemed set to win the match. Incidentally, two and a half days to bowl out a team twice is not an impossibility as Ponting implies.

Lara's journey to 400 saw him achieve four records and gave the West Indies team and the wider Caribbean community a psychological lift. Admittedly, the records set by Lara will help to ease the hurt of England's three-nil victory and perhaps set in train a reversal of the pyschological injury of the long, sad slide of Caribbean cricket. But it goes beyond that. Trinidadians and Tobagonians, indeed Caribbean people as a whole, particularly the young can identify with Lara's achievements, feel proud of him and know that they, too, can be achievers.

The massive outpourings of joy and pride earlier this week on Lara's arrival at Piarco International Airport, and during the motorcades in his honour which took place in the capital city, Port-of-Spain, as well as Chaguanas, San Fernando and points in between were, not unlike his achievements, slices of TT and Caribbean history. Australia's cricket has given the world Don Bradman and undoubtedly every Aussie is proud of him. Ponting should not begrudge, however unintentionally, the Caribbean giving to the world Brian Charles Lara. Bradman had his moment and reshaped cricketing history.  Now it is Lara's turn and Caribbean people are proud of him. What is needed, however, is for West Indies players, generally, to be more disciplined and committed rather than continue to display an all too often casual approach to the game.