(Trinidad Express) Former West Indies captain Brian Lara believes ex-Trinidad and Tobago skipper Daren Ganga should have been afforded the opportunity to have an input in the grooming of the next national skipper, especially after the many successes he has had at the helm of the T&T team.
The double world record-holder was commenting on the situation with Ganga resigning as captain last month and a captain’s report stating the former skipper was informed by unnamed players that T&T Cricket Board president Azim Bassarath intended to remove him as captain by the end of the year.
Speaking to the Express during a children’s party at his home on Lady Chancellor Hill yesterday, Lara said he felt that Ganga could have captained the side for a few more years.
“I don’t know the intricacies of it but obviously he has done a tremendous job.
“His results and stats as a captain are far and beyond anybody else’s and, at age 32, I don’t see anybody gone past their best. I think if anyone is to come out and say that we are trying to see if Trinidad and Tobago can have a West Indies captain in having a younger player captain the (T&T) side…that does not make much sense to me.
Lara added: “This guy is doing a wonderful job for Trinidad and Tobago and I thought he had a few more years in the leadership position. Maybe if you want to say that Twenty20 is beyond him–I don’t know how his performances have been–then you say that, but someone who has led the team so successfully, you would think that you would allow him to leave at the time when he wants to leave and also (allow him to) have a great input, like Clive Lloyd did, in what goes on (in terms of) the transition period between himself as leader and the next leader and I thought that he earned that and it is still disappointing (that he did not get that).”
In terms of the way forward for the West Indies team, the “Prince of Port of Spain” said that while there has been talent coming through for a number of years, there is still no infrastructure in place to nurture and groom that talent.
“I think we had good units going forward for many, many years and I still believe the problem rests with how we enhance those talents and (what we do) administratively and what infrastructure we put in place.”
Lara said that over the years the West Indies have seen the likes of Viv Richards, Courtney Walsh and Jimmy Adams come and go. He does not know if Chris Gayle or Dwayne Bravo will be around again, but “still we are having the same results”.
“So you will tend to believe that there is a lot more to it other than what is perceived as the players are not good enough or the players are doing this. I honestly believe that, administratively, we’ve gotten it wrong,” he added.
“We have nothing in place for our future. Even if this team becomes good, I still don’t believe we have any infrastructure to maintain it for any lengthy period of time.
“So until that is done, I would just sit and applaud when there are good performances or be in empathy with the players whenever things go bad because as a player I know the difficulties that you will have to go through to perform well and I know these young players are trying their best and will come under some criticism about the results, but I don’t think they can do much about it.”
