Lara Rips Skerritt's Timing

Thu, Mar 25, '04

West Indies captain Brian Lara isn't happy with the timing of manager Ricky Skerritt's sudden resignation, suggesting it was an unnecessary distraction for the team.

"Without a doubt this situation is more than a little unfortunate because of its timing...Ricky, I must say that I wish this decision had come about before or after the Test series," Lara wrote in a column for the Trinidad Guardian newspaper.

Skerritt's resignation, announced immediately after the second Test loss in Trinidad & Tobago, is effective June 30 -- after the home series against Bangladesh. However, Lara's very public upbraiding of Skerritt's decision-making is seen as an attempt by the captain to get a new manager in place immediately.

There is no official word from the WICB on a replacement for Skerritt and it is unclear if he will remain with the through the current series against England.

"Maybe all of us who have an effect on West Indies cricket should rethink our positions, but the timing must be right," Lara declared. "West Indies cricket will always be here, it will never die, and we are just a very small gradient in its massive landscape. Some people leave a greater effect on the history of our cricket than others, but that stems not only from what they have done, but what legacy they have left behind."

Lara, who twice quit the side without warning -- on tour of England in 1995 and as captain in 2000 -- referred to 2000 resignation while making the point that he did it "before the home series against Zimbabwe and Pakistan."

"Immediately after resigning as captain I took a sabbatical away from the game to assess my mental state at the time and to also remodel my future plans, which would have been severely altered because of my decision. Jimmy Adams, my good friend, was named captain. He went through a camp with the team, giving him an opportunity to bond with his players and get familiar with his new position, before the start of that series," Lara explained.

Lara, who continues to have an up-and-down relationship with head coach Gus Logie, said the team does not need another new face at this time. "What does our team need right now to perform better? A new face is definitely not the answer. What we need is a closer relationship with our history and the great legacy that we seem to be slowly dismantling."

"Tapping into the emotional side of our players is the key to getting the best out of them, be it on the field or in preparation. Presently everything that we do seems to be more of a task instead of being self-gratifying, and that will be a serious problem if it continues."

The captain, who has had four successive failures with the bat, called on the likes of Sir Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes to help with the team's style and approach to batting.

"The ultimate batsman would be all three of them wrapped up into one, because they were all unique. I admired those players and as a youngster took what I thought was their biggest asset and allowed those traits to influence my game."

Lara added: "I am urging the great players of the past to come forward not with your opinion on what is going wrong with West Indies cricket but with advice about what made you the best at what you did. This team needs the positive energy of some of these role models. Sometimes it is necessary to stop for a minute and take a look at your past before you can forge ahead into the future."