Lara: 'Win Can Be a Foundation'

Basking in the glow of his team's miracle win over England in the ICC Champions Trophy final, West Indies captain Brian Lara believes the victory could be a foundation to prepare for the 2007 World Cup.

"Hopefully this can be the foundation for the team and this can be the impetus to settle some matters. We're just looking forward to playing some more cricket," Lara said. "It's an opportunity for us. We haven't won the World Cup, but it serves as something we can work with. We have some tough cricket to come."

"As a team it is a great achievement. For a team that has been under a lot of pressure in the test arena and the one day arena, to come out after a very dismal summer, against England, a team that has won seven test matches in eight, I think it's a tremendous effort."

"I think the guys played well and showed a lot of character and it augurs well for the future. It's also an opportunity for the people in the Caribbean, after the stress they've been under and will help their psyche and help them rejoice."

On recovering from 147-8...

"It's great to see the guys believing in themselves. I'm not sure they had a knock in the nets. [Browne and Bradshaw] are from Barbados and have played together in many, many matches."

On his catch to dismiss Andrew Flintoff...

"It was majorly important and it has to go up with the best of them. It was a great team effort. We backed ourselves in the field and against South Africa and Pakistan we wanted to be the better fielding team and today again we showed that."

On whether this is his final match in England...

"It depends upon what is planned for the next three years and if nothing is planned, then it's great to end on a high. I don't know, I'm not going to put closure on it, but what happened today is phenomenal."

* Quotes provided by the International Cricket Council (ICC)