Lara’s not the problem says Boycott

LONDON: Ex-England captain and opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott says he feels empathy for the embattled West Indies captain Brian Lara. Lara’s leadership of the failing West Indies team has been under increasing fire in recent months and in the past couple of weeks, Sir Vivian Richards and Lance Gibbs, two of the greatest names in West Indies cricket history, have added their voices to calls for the 35-year-old Trinidadian to step aside as captain. England have already shot into an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match Test series to retain the Wisden Trophy, but Boycott —  working as a television commentator in the current series —  does not believe there is much that Lara can do as captain to change the Caribbean side’s losing record.

“It’s a fact that the losing captain always gets the blame. But would the team play any better under another captain? A lot of former West Indies players would say ‘yes’ but how do you prove it?,” Boycott asked. “I was sacked as captain after eight years but things didn’t get any better under Chris Old, Ray Illingworth or David Bairstow and I sense that will happen here. They’ll get rid of Lara but the team won’t get any better, no matter who they give the job to,” he said. A decade ago, the West Indies were the world’s best and now they are ranked an embarrassing eighth of 10 teams in the world Test ratings. “Quite frankly the team he (Lara) is leading simply aren’t very good. Which of the five fast bowlers who have played in the first two matches —  Tino Best, Jermaine Lawson, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards —  would get into any other international side barring Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (and it’s a joke to call them Test sides)?” Boycott asked. 

“When it comes to the batting there are only four guys who can make runs: Lara, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. (Dwayne) Bravo, Dwayne Smith and (Omari) Banks are raw and totally out of their depth,” he said. “In the short time they bat there seems to be potential but as soon as they come under pressure they fold.  Ridley Jacobs, who has made runs in the past, is out of form and, at 36-years-of- age, coming to the end of his career,” Boycott said. Boycott said “maybe Lara could set better fields” and attack new batsmen more but whatever is agreed with the bowlers, they have to have the ability to bowl to the field “and from what I’ve seen they can’t do that.” “It’s a nightmare being the captain of a poor side when you’re the best batsman. I had it in the seventies at Yorkshire, when I took over from Brian Close with a side of youngsters. You try like heck but in the end it affects you and wears you down,” he said.

But Boycott did suggest that Lara has built some of his own problems because of his attitude in the past and must also face the issue of envy that many successful persons have to endure. “He’s got away with poor timekeeping, missing nets and various other misdemeanours, and he’s rubbed up former players and officials the wrong way. On top of that there’s a lot of envy about his world records with the bat and those jealousies come back to haunt him when he’s on the wrong end of it,” Boycott said. He conceded that after the current series against England, Lara should reflect and give serious thought to giving it up for his own mental comfort. “Not because of outside pressures but for the sake of his own peace of mind,” Boycott said. (CMC)