Which Brian Lara Will Show up?

Brian Lara's appointment as West Indian captain is a massive gamble because the selection panel cannot be sure which Brian Lara will take the job.

Will it be the Lara who turned up fit, focused and committed to the team cause in the World Cup? Or will it be the confused, troubled soul who has missed four Test series in the past two years and earlier this season was spotted playing the Barbados Golf Open, despite claiming he was unfit to play cricket.

Lara's gift is his artist's touch. His weakness is his artist's temperament.

Prolonged periods of stress can send him AWOL.

Deposed skipper Carl Hooper was sacked because his leadership style was deemed too conservative and predictable, particularly for a side that prides itself on playing with flair.

Quietly spoken and introspective, Hooper was no Frank Worrell in the charisma stakes.

But in a desperately difficult era, he was at least stable -- a quality not to be sold short at a time when not playing disgracefully became a higher priority than winning.

After a series of depressing years in the late 1990s, Hooper lifted the one-day side from a 36 per cent winning ratio three years ago to 43 per cent the next year and 56 per cent in the year before the World Cup. It was honourable progress.

But now the ship is moving forward, albeit slowly. The selectors wanted someone who could set a spinnaker for a young side, including Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, rather than simply stand behind the wheel and plod along at tugboat pace.

No matter what lies ahead, it can be said with certainty the gamble has immeasurably spiced up Australia's Test series against the West Indies.

One lament after the World Cup was that it did not unearth a single young champion, so it's uplifting to see an old one roaring back into the cricket fray.

Had he been more calculating, Lara may have turned his back on the leadership for the series against the world champion and waited until the West Indies had a softer target. But that's not the way he plays.

Steve Waugh once rated Lara his favourite opponent to watch -- "because he tries to play the same every time no matter what the conditions" -- and the man's fundamental bravado can be seen in this decision.

But modern Test captaincy is not a job for the half-committed.

Between the rare moments of glory, there are many mind-numbing press conferences, dumb questions, meetings with match officials, photo shoots, team talks and umpires' reports, all issues which the free-spirited Lara might find boring and draining.

Recent history tells us giving the leadership to a superstar player is always a bigger gamble than it looks.

For every big name who handled it well -- Steve Waugh and Viv Richards are two examples -- there are plenty of others -- Ian Botham, Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar -- who found the combined pressures of saviour and supervisor beyond them.

Lara will, at least, be a great role model for his young players as a scrupulously fair player.

This is an important appointment, not simply for Lara and the West Indies, but for a world cricket scene yearning for a West Indian side to return to their glory years.

* SOURCE: Herald Sun