Lara lays down the law to Bravo

BRISBANE: He may be hailed as the first genuine all-rounder to emerge from the West Indies for almost 30 years, but Dwayne Bravo is paying the price for neglecting the strongest aspect of his game, at least in his captain’s eyes. “I would like to state that he is a batting all-rounder, not a bowling all-rounder,” said West Indies captain Brian Lara emphatically in the wake of the Caribbean side’s six-wicket defeat to Pakistan in their second match of the VB Series yesterday at The Gabba. Anticipating questions from the media over the omission of the talented 20-year-old, Lara elaborated: “He is not helping us with the bat at all. He’s got to work in the nets as much as possible and he’s got to understand that he’s got to make a contribution with the bat.

If you look back in the matches that we’ve played on this tour so far, he wasn’t able to get the runs. We need guys to understand that even though they’re coming in at seven or eight (in the batting order) they have to contribute with the bat,” a clearly peeved Lara added. “Consideration (for the next match) will be given to him as well because he’s bowled well and also he’s a decent fielder, but we must get guys understanding —  like Marlon Samuels and Bravo —  that when it gets down to them, we need to get runs as well.” Having made his international debut in the one-day series against England in the Caribbean last year, Bravo enhanced his reputation as a quality all-round cricketer despite the West Indies being whitewashed in the subsequent return four-Test series in England.

His tally of 16 wickets included a six-wicket second innings haul in the Third Test in Manchester while he scored half-centuries in the last two Tests of the series.  These encouraging returns were complemented by sharp, aggressive out-cricket, but clearly in the mind of his captain and fellow-Trinidadian, he is not working hard enough at his game. Lara also found himself on the defensive facing the Australian media after the loss to Pakistan, qualifying his criticism of the top-order batting by saying there was little he could do in his time at the crease. “I got out with seven overs to go,” the West Indian captain said in responding to a question about the manner of his dismissal for a 30-ball 39. “I was scoring in excess of a run-a-ball. I had to try to keep it up because I knew we were short of runs and had to try to get as many as possible, knowing that we had batsmen and big-hitters still to come. With 42 balls left, you needed to get another 70-80 runs. I was only trying to get on with it,” Lara said.

Charging at medium-pacer Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan, Lara was cramped by a short-pitched delivery and lobbed a simple catch to backward-point. Another 64 runs were added by Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the remaining deliveries, but a total of 273 for five on an excellent batting pitch was easily surpassed by Pakistan with three overs to spare.  The captain also hinted at yet another shuffling of what remains a less than menacing bowling attack.  “We need to look for the right combination,” he admitted, while adding that the loss of Gayle’s brisk off-spin because of a shoulder injury in Melbourne last Friday was a significant blow. “But today was not a bowler’s problem. We did not maximise the runs we should have gotten on such a surface in 50 overs,” he said. Yet amid the gloom, Lara promised a much-improved performance in the day/night duel with Australia tomorrow (tonight Caribbean time) at The Gabba. Without that improvement, any realistic hope of advancing to the best-of-three finals could be gone within the next seven days. (CMC)