SYDNEY – Brian Lara believes the “real problem” with West Indies cricket is the lack of communication between the board and the players.
“We’re a laughing stock at present,” Lara said here after arriving to play in his new favoured sport, golf, in next week’s pro-am ahead of the Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club.
The champion left-hander, a former West Indies captain and their leading scorer in Tests and one-day internationals during a career from 1991 to 2007, called it “very unfortunate”.
“The real problem is communication,” he said. “I won’t point fingers. I am very biased towards players, because I was a player and I’ve experienced relationships in the past with the West Indies Cricket Board and I know what they’re like.”
“There is no communication and it escalates into something disastrous,” he added. “Communication is something I have never experienced with the West Indies Cricket Board, as a captain and as a player. I suspect it’s the same thing that’s going on at the moment.”
He was referring to the players’ abandonment of the tour of India last month over a pay dispute with the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
He said he was confident West Indies cricket would survive a potential lawsuit worth upwards of US$42 million from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) but lamented their current standing in the world game where they are eighth in the ICC Test and ODI rankings.
“It’s sad where our cricket has reached,” Lara said. “It’s out in the open. The egos have to get out of the way. It’s very frustrating.”
“It’s not something you envisage from a country that has brought so much joy to their people. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth and express blame but it’s really sad that we haven’t come to terms with what cricket means to us.
Lara’s view was that the days of West Indies’ domination of the world game in the 1970s and 1980s are over.
“We’ve got to put that into the history books,” he said. “But I honestly believe we have the best talent in the world. When you look at a West Indian when he is 17, a fast bowler or batsman, and what he’s capable of, I still think we have the best talent. We take very good talent and turn them into ordinary talent.”
Lara queried Indian great Sachin Tendulkar’s recent billing of the West Indies as a “dark horse” at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“They will always be a dark horse,” he said. “Yes, they have the cricketers but are they going to play as a team?”