Lara: Chanderpaul is a Fighter

West Indies captain Brian Lara spoke with the media on Saturday ahead of the second Test match in Multan, Pakistan.

He had kind words of praise for team mate Shivnarine Chanderpaul who will be playing in his 100th Test match and who he described as a fighter. Following are excerpts from his responses:

It's a significant achievement and milestone for (Shiv) Chanderpaul. For anyone to play a hundred Tests for any country is a tremendous achievement and I look forward to celebrating it with him with a win.

On Chanderpaul's fitness:

Chanderpaul is not a hundred percent but he is feeling a lot better now, he is a fighter and we expect him to join us out in the middle tomorrow. He wants to play in his hundredth Test match, anybody would want to do that, he's a fighter so he should be fine.

On the Windies' chances:

We are one nil down and we'd like to win this series still and the only way we're going to do that is by winning this Test match. The guys are looking forward and planning well to performing much better than we did in Lahore.

On what went wrong in the Lahore defeat:

Getting out on the first day of a test match for 206 is not on for any team that wants to win or wants to do well in a test match. That is where we definitely went wrong. I'm sure that the guys are fully understanding that we played some poor shots and we have to have better shot selection in this test match. We didn't give the bowlers the cushion that they needed to ensure that we performed well or be competitive and that was unfortunate. That is now behind us and we have got to look forward to Multan.

On the pitch:

The pitch looks slow and void of grass. Here again what is also important is the climatic conditions and it is also very cold and there is also a little bit of rain about. If that's the case there is always the chance of a lot of movement first up on the first day on a fresh pitch.

On how he rates the current Pakistan team:

They are as good as any. More than anything else Pakistan is a team that performs very well at home and the individuals to me really does not matter. In some days you are going to have Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and Imran Khan but I think most importantly is the nucleus of the team and the vibes of the team and they seem very positive about their chances in Pakistan and they play like a winning team in Pakistan.

They beat the team that won against the number one team in the world, England, and to beat England after they won the Ashes must have been a very good effort. We know that they are a force to be reckoned with and I don't want to delve into the individual skills of each player but I still fell that they are a very tough unit.