The Anti Lara Fan

[Arnab]

The Anti Lara Fan
Posted - Fri Apr 15 2005
THE MORGAN COULTHURST

Don't be fooled by his 10 000 runs, two world records, 27 centuries including a quadruple, triple and five doubles. Lara is a cancer on West Indies cricket. At first glance this logic seems irrational, but to really understand it you have to speak to an ALF. I dont mean the comedian turned born-again Christian with headlining experience. In this case, ALF stands for Anti Lara Fan.

The two fundamentals of ALF are simple:

1. Any runs scored by Lara are only for himself and not on behalf of the West Indies team. Lara's runs always come with a selfish motive

2. Lara makes runs only when he wants to. Any low score is either a deliberate attempt to undermine the incumbent captain, or just a matter of being "don't carish." He's thinking about carnival or some British supermodel.

ALFs are masters at taking any situation in a game involving West Indies and constructing an argument proving that Lara is the problem. The simpler the premise of their arguments the better. The example below illustrates an ALF argument which can be applied in the wake of the Port-of-Spain defeat.

Fact 1: Lara didn't play in the First Test in Guyana and the team drew.

Fact 2: Lara played in the Second Test in Trinidad and the team lost.

Conclusion: West Indies are a better team without Lara and he should be omitted.

Believe it or not, this simple logic is enough to convince many. There are, however, others who will demand that the ALF come with something a bit stronger and consider at least some other elements such as the performance of the South Africans, the flat pitch at Bourda, the performance of other batsmen in the West Indies team, Shivs captaincy, the no balls of Reon King and of course Laras overall contribution in the losing cause.

But ALFs are not easily defeated; in fact, they will then turn that evidence against Lara by explaining to you that all of the other factors were influenced by Lara. In the last Test match, Lara made 200 runs, but ALFs will tell you defeat was Lara's fault because the other members of the team did not score runs. Lara quite simply stops others from performing by his very presence. He makes other batsmen feel so inferior they can't even hold a bat straight. He stops the bowlers from taking wickets and sends out so much negativity that fielders can't even hold on to the dolly catches. At the same time he inspires the opposition to play better. Once bombarded by this evidence, always presented with high emotion, even the biggest Lara supporter is forced to give up in exasperation.

ALFs have ready made anti Lara arguments for all scenarios. When Lara makes a big score and other batsmen support with runs to produce a formidable total, Lara's innings is irrelevant. The fact that everybody else made runs means that the wicket must have been really easy. This adds fuel to another common ALF belief that Lara is only a flat wicket bully.

When Lara makes a moderate score, but the team makes a big score, Lara is to blame for simply not trying (Refer to point 2 of ALF fundamentals). If Lara is the best batsmen in the world he should have stood up like the others.

Lara has made hundreds with injured thumbs, hamstring strains and even hepatitis, but ALFs will warn you not to mistake any of this for dedication to the cause of West Indies cricket. It is all a matter of glory for Lara (Refer to Point 1 of ALF Fundamentals). When Lara almost single- handedly won two Test matches against Australia in 1999 that was not inspirational leadership. That was selfish play aimed at just securing his position as West Indies captain after being put on a two-match probation. Of course, if he had failed as a batsman in that series, the ALF response would have been, a true champion batsman should be able to make runs under any conditions against the best opposition.

So win, lose or draw, Lara is the victim. Lara should realise that his over-achievement is frowned on by the growing population of ALFs among us. If he can curb his appetite for runs, step back and try to play at the level of the others and not be a "stand out" he may blunt the ALF attacks. Who knows, one day a little ALF may even whisper in your ear that Lara just might have been a team man with West Indies cricket at heart.

[shaoun]

who is this idoit? west indies is better team without lara? does this guy have brain damage.

[Spitfire_x86]

and Pakistan is better without Inzamam

[zaed]

Buddy tell you what!!!!!!!!
Lara is Lara......

[zaed]

and talking about him???
one of the best match winner in this whole world....

[Arnab]

Hmm...Sarcasm 101 is in order.

[couger]

Let me be the devil's advocate and say that I have to agree with the article, at least to a certain extent. It is my belief that no matter how talented a player is he is not greater than the team. Problem with Lara is that while he posesses the talent to singlehandedly turn a game he rarely does that. His test innings of 400 was a perfect eexample of his selfishness. Had he declared an hour or two early they had a genine chance of winning, instead he chose personal goal over team achievment.

His captaincy is even more damaging to the team. He sets very bad examples to the younger players with his indifferent behaviour. I do realize, at his level you're entitled to certain level of ego but Lara at times appears an "ego maniac".

His lack of respect for team mangement and coahes is well documented. In his career he's already been banned(sort of) three times. Would any mangement do this to a player of his caliber if what charges against him wasn't grave?

[sislam2]

[QUOTE=couger;160806]Let me be the devil's advocate and say that I have to agree with the article, at least to a certain extent. It is my belief that no matter how talented a player is he is not greater than the team. Problem with Lara is that while he posesses the talent to singlehandedly turn a game he rarely does that. His test innings of 400 was a perfect eexample of his selfishness. Had he declared an hour or two early they had a genine chance of winning, instead he chose personal goal over team achievment.


I hope his 216 against shows how much he cares for the to win. He blasted a 77 ball century and then kept a 70+ strike rate so that the team can have a big lead and win. So, it is easy blame him for selfishness but do your analysis before blame a player like him for anything.

[chyicarus]

well Lara is a great player and a genius- that is definitely true- it is also true that he doesn't produce his best all the time and that his emotions and mood swings gets in the way. but when he wants to- he can easily play better than Sachin- any given day.
But i disregard the claim that he acts selfishly. I am not sure if the person who wrote the article has any knowledge of the cricket played in the WI. The players produced in WI have all been only talented, not polished.

[Shehwar]

It'll be interesting to find out who actually wrote this article though......

[AsifTheManRahman]

i've always seen lara as a selfish batter who always thinks of himself as higher than the team - not really a team player of any sorts. although i agree with the article to a small extent, i have to say that the WI team has become so pathetic over the years that even some selfish runs are more than enough to save their butts. WI without lara is as helpless as a one year old crawling on the highway (minus the ongoing series against SA).

i think the article could have been composed better - it was a bit too harsh.

[Arnab]

Has everyone's sarcasm radar gone crazy?

And I can also see some ALFs in this thread as well.

Edited on, April 20, 2005, 6:22 PM GMT, by Arnab.

[Arnab]

His test innings of 400 was a perfect eexample of his selfishness. Had he declared an hour or two early they had a genine chance of winning, instead he chose personal goal over team achievment.

A "genuine" chance of winning? That was a flat track for five whole days. Are you suggesting that the mighty West Indian bowlers would have bowled England out twice inside two and a quarter days (a feat that they weren't able to produce on bowling pitches in the previoius three tests even once) on that flat pitch ONLY IF Lara batted 30 minutes less?

[couger]

Originally posted by Arnab

A "genuine" chance of winning? That was a flat track for five whole days. Are you suggesting that the mighty West Indian bowlers would have bowled England out twice inside two and a quarter days (a feat that they weren't able to produce on bowling pitches in the previoius three tests even once) on that flat pitch ONLY IF Lara batted 30 minutes less?

The point is as long as there is a chance of winning you have to go for it. True, WI bowling lineup wasn't anything to write home about but then again neither was England batting lineup.

[couger]

On the same note, I didn't consider Kuble's 10 wickets in an inning against Pakistan selfish as the outcome was pretty much decided. I didn't think other Indian bowlers NOT trying to take any wicket was wrong.

[Arnab]

Originally posted by couger
The point is as long as there is a chance of winning you have to go for it. True, WI bowling lineup wasn't anything to write home about but then again neither was England batting lineup.

The counterpoint is the "chance of winning" was not so cruciallly dependent upon a 30 minute extension of the Lara innings as some people are making it out to be. In other words, WI's chance of winning didn't dramatically/significantly go down, by any logical stretch of imagination, because Lara played 30 mins more.

***

ADD: And I don't know what criteria you are using to say England batting lineup wasn't anything to write home about, especially against WI bowlers.

Edited on, April 20, 2005, 10:20 PM GMT, by Arnab.

[couger]

Originally posted by Arnab
WI's chance of winning didn't dramatically/significantly go down, by any logical stretch of imagination, because Lara played 30 mins more.
Edited on, April 20, 2005, 10:20 PM GMT, by Arnab.

That is purely your opinion. I happen to think otherwise. We'll never know now so I'll leave it at that.

[couger]

Originally posted by Arnab

ADD: And I don't know what criteria you are using to say England batting lineup wasn't anything to write home about, especially against WI bowlers.

Edited on, April 20, 2005, 10:20 PM GMT, by Arnab.

How else would you describe them?

[Arnab]

Originally posted by couger

That is purely your opinion. I happen to think otherwise. We'll never know now so I'll leave it at that.

That's not exactly purely my opinion. That's a reasonable estimate. We need to consider the objective conditions and contexts surrounding the match to assess how reasonabale our opinions are. And I am fairly confident that mine is more reasonable.

[Arnab]

Originally posted by couger

How else would you describe them?

Good batsmen quite capable of playing out WI bowlers for two and a half days (or even more) twice on a flat pitch.

[bangla_amar]

I suspect the writer is one of the caribbean Lara fans frequenting the caribbeancricket.com message board. There is huge fight always goes on between Lara fans and Lara haters.

I think Arnab's point is very much valid, it was highly improbable of windies to win that match on such a docile track in ARG. Even if we assume the impossibility, what difference it would make? 3-0 to 3-1? Who cares? But a world record like 400 carries much more pride for caribbean people than a dead rubber win.

Whatever it is....

Lara is the greatest!!!!

Too bad, he missed out on double century again!

[islam]

*lol*
The writer of the article is stupid. Lara is 33 now and has more than 10,000 and is not the capation of WI.
He has 7 double centuries 28 centuries and many more 1/2 centuries. He could be like jimmy adams, carl hooper and quit since he lost the captaincy, but he plays on and in a lot of the WIndian inngins in recent times he scores more than 1/2 the total team runs scored by his team. He is from a different era than the current crop of Wi players, once he retires it will signal the true end of WI cricket.

[mwrkhan]

Lara is 35 but he could still play a few more years.

[Sham]

OH MY GOD! People still haven't figured out that the writer was being sarcastic and ridiculing ALFs.

Arnab, forget Sarcasm 101, English 101 might be in order!

[shovon13]

hahahahahaha

truly hilarious!