Lara: I'll Step Down if...

West Indies captain Brian Lara has put his captaincy on the line, promising to step aside if his side fails to beat Bangladesh in the second Test in Jamaica.

"If we don't beat Bangladesh, who have not won a Test match and have drawn only three out of maybe 30, after five good days of cricket in Jamaica, I think we'll need another leader...If we don't win then I don't think I'm going to lead the team to England," Lara declared.

Lara's comments caused a stir at the pre-match press conference and is being viewed as a call to arms for the struggling Caribbean side. The West Indies were expected to roll over Bangladesh in this series but the visitors held the upper hand for most of the first Test.

The batting champion has been heavily criticised for poor leadership during the disastrous 0-3 home series loss against England.

Still, Lara believes credit should be given to the underrated Bangladeshis. "They are improving and not a team that anybody is going to walk over if they are put under the right conditions. And they had conditions favouring them in St. Lucia. Coming out of the first Test, if you had assessed the performances, you'd say that Bangladesh played better than the West Indies. So credit must be given to them. They had three centurions and their fast bowling department was more disciplined than ours. So respect must be given to them."

It should be noted that West Indies captains are appointed from series to series and it is no lock that Lara would have been named skipper for upcoming tour of England. During the first Test match in St Lucia, he openly criticised the selectors for excluding a spinner from the final XI, arguing it was "not in our best interest" to field an all-pace attack.

"It was evident at quite an early stage that leaving out the spinner was not in our best interest," Lara wrote in his Trinidad Guardian column.