‘Windies talent is world’s best’

[Xavier]

Looks like Brian Lara is still optimistic about West Indies future:

Windies talent is world’s best’

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Published on: Friday, 21st July, 2006

BRIAN LARA reckons Caribbean cricketers are still the best in the world - and insists West Indies can once again challenge at the top of the world game. But the current Windies captain says they will never again be “invincible” like the great teams of the past.Lara grew up admiring the all-conquering West Indies Test sides of the 1970s and early 1980s - which inspired him to go on and pursue his own cricket dream.
Those were the days when batsmen like Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards scored runs for fun for the free-flowing Caribbean kings. And bowlers like Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall terrorised opposition batsmen around the world. Since the heady days of world domination however, West Indies cricket has suffered a major slump. They are currently eighth in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings, ahead of perennial whipping boys Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
And they lie seventh in the one-day rankings. But, while West Indies cricket continues to trudge its way through dark times, legend Lara says there is light at the end of the tunnel for Caribbean cricket. “I still believe we’ve got the best talent in the world, the best cricketers,” said Lara, who holds the world record score for a Test match innings, with 400. We are starting behind the eight-ball. The infrastructure and financial side of West Indies cricket is not as great as Australia or India. But we have the best talent in the world. We still produce the 17 and 18-year-olds who can beat anyone in the world.But we will never be invincible like we were in the 1970s. That is never going to happen again.”
Lara, currently in his third spell captaining West Indies, believes the job of the Caribbbean skipper is now bigger than ever before - trying to mould the world’s top talent into a team and get them pulling in the right direction for the Windies. “I do believe we have the best natural talent in the world,” added Lara, who is in Dubai to take part in the Chevrolet Cricket Show, and to holiday with his daughter. But the problem is keeping them together. We have all these guys from different cultures coming together and it’s hard to get them pulling together and working as a team - but the individual talent is there.”
However, it may be some time before the Windies can be challenging at the top again, according to Lara. The world’s leading Test run scorer believes they have been overtaken - and left behind - as the other cricket nations have changed their approach to cricket. “Other countries have re-modelled their style of cricket,” said the man who has 11,505 runs in the Test match arena. All the big nations like England, Australia and India all have academies. In the West Indies they’re laid back and we don’t have the funding. There’s only about six million people in the Caribbean, but our cricket history is very rich and we’re proud of what we have done.”

DROPPING DWAYNE A MISTAKE
Brian Lara has described the decision by the West Indies Cricket Board not to give Dwayne Bravo a central contract as “unfortunate”. The WICB overlooked Bravo when handing out contracts because he has a deal with bMobile, a rival of the team’s sponsor Digicel. But Lara said: “Bravo is a key player for us. He is the best all-rounder in the team. “For him not to be retained is unfortunate.”
The West Indies players union has also hit out at that, and the decision by the WICB to launch an inquiry into comments made by Lara. Players’ union chief Dinanath Ramnarine said: “We are greatly concerned about the decisions made by the WICB. They will have significant implications.” Meanwhile, on his feud with the WICB, Lara said: “It was spur of the moment. I was very disappointed with the way things went and I voiced my opinion. I thought that was fair. It will get sorted when I get back.”

http://www.7days.ae/2006/07/21/windi...rlds-best.html

[Tigers_eye]

I disagree to the academy reasoning. Amborse, Walsh, Patterson, Holding, Garner, Roberts, Croft, Marshall did not come from any academy. They still produce 2 meter tall humans in abundance. The talented ones are going where the money is that's Baseball. Simple economics.

[israr]

whatever it is, i believe windies cricket will thrive in the future, Cricket will never be obliterated from the Caribbeans.

[Sovik]

digicel is destroying windies cricket. since digicel became their official sponsor, all sort of problem started. looks like windies cricket is going no where. cricketers are always threatening to boycott serieses. thats not good for windies cricket. their board should sort out this sponsorship deal. cause leaving out bravo is a major mistake.

[Bancan]

Cable & Wireless All the way

[Fazal]

Windies talent is world’s best’

Thats what everyone thinks.

[sadi]

lol... I think he was joking... was he?

[Rabz]

in 5 years.. we would be beating WI, NZ and Zims on a regular basis.

[SS]

Originally Posted by Sydney
in 5 years.. we would be beating WI, NZ and Zims on a regular basis.

Unfortunately too early predictions. We might be able to defeat Zim but not on regular basis. As they are learning faster than our cricketers and if the old cricketers come back it will be totally different story
Windies really do have some talented players, but they are new. I guess lack of discipline is killing Windies cricket and top of it financial and corruption reason. But still they will eventually improve. It's in their blood for long time.

[Rabz]

Originally Posted by SS
Unfortunately too early predictions. We might be able to defeat Zim but not on regular basis. As they are learning faster than our cricketers and if the old cricketers come back it will be totally different story
Windies really do have some talented players, but they are new. I guess lack of discipline is killing Windies cricket and top of it financial and corruption reason. But still they will eventually improve. It's in their blood for long time.

u hv the right to belive in our own perception.
but i wud still stand on my point. i believe in our youngsters and the future of cricket in Bangladesh. i beleive by 2011, we will have a formidable size who wud fight any other cricketing nation. we cud be a the mid ranking team and a force to reckon with. but then again..its all my optimism.

i think only time can tell us.
cheers mate