W/Cup 2007 schedule upsets Lara

MELBOURNE: While offering the proviso that he was taking nothing for granted given the recent turbulence in West Indies cricket, Brian Lara is hopeful of appearing at the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, although he is not happy that the hosts will be based in just one island at the preliminary phase. “It would be really nice to play at the World Cup,” the West Indies captain stated on the eve of his team’s opening match of the VB Series against Australia today (last night Caribbean time) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. “Unfortunately, I’m a bit saddened by the fact that the majority of our games will be played in Jamaica. I would really love to see the West Indies play around the Caribbean for the benefit of the people.

It’s a great spectacle to have maybe the greatest sporting event ever in Caribbean history there. But even for all that, I would still love to play in 2007.” If his international career prolongs for another two years, Lara will be appearing in his fifth World Cup at the age of 37. The allocation of venues for the tournament last July placed the home team at Sabina Park in Kingston for their group matches. Defending champions Australia will be based at a new venue in St Kitts, England and their legion of fans will make St Lucia’s Beausejour Stadium their home base in the early going, while 2003 beaten-finalists India can expect sentimental support in Trinidad and Tobago as they play their opening fixtures at the Queen’s Park Oval.

Yet as much as the prospect of a World Cup on home soil is a tantalising prospect, the experience of the recent impasse between the West Indies Cricket Board and the Players Association has taught the champion left-hander an important lesson. “I’m taking each tour one at a time,” Lara explained. “At 35, you never know what could crop up. It’s so unpredictable in the West Indies, before I came out here I was sacked. I don’t know what’s the situation and I can’t tell what the future holds for me.” Lara and 15 other players were initially ruled out of consideration for the tour over their failure to sign contracts ahead of a three-week training camp in Barbados.

The last-minute resolution of the dispute mirrored a similar standoff over pay before the historic first full tour of South Africa in 1998/99, when Lara was also sacked as captain along with then vice-captain Carl Hooper before both were reinstated in what WICB president at the time, Pat Rousseau, described as a “misunderstanding”. Such was the debilitating effect of that crisis, coming as it did after the West Indies reached the final of the inaugural Mini-World Cup (now the ICC Champions’ Trophy) in Bangladesh, that a disjointed, rudderless outfit crashed 5-0 in the Test series and 6-1 in the One-Day Internationals. It remains to be seen if the latest dispute has had any impact on team spirit in the wake of the Champions’ Trophy triumph last September in England, but Lara is mindful that his team may endure a shaky start to their six-match preliminary schedule in the VB Series.

“We’re going to improve as the tournament progresses,” he contended. “But first and foremost we have to take into consideration that there is a team that’s full of confidence, Australia, and there is a team that is lacking in confidence, Pakistan. We’re not going to be in top form immediately, but we hope to start well and hope to continue improving so that we can keep Pakistan down in low spirits.” Following the MCG curtain-raiser, the West Indies travel north to Brisbane to await their first date with Pakistan next Wednesday at The Gabba. Before that clash, the Pakistanis, who were swept 3-0 in a Test series in the first part of their Australian tour, seek a measure of revenge against Ricky Ponting’s squad as they open their VB Series campaign on Sunday at Bellerive Oval in Hobart. (CMC)