Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has confessed that the cricketing climate has made understanding the value of playing for the national team tough.
Nonetheless, the famous hitter admitted that players cannot be blamed for preferring money above the desire to play for their nation.
Once a cricketing superpower, the Windies have suffered a precipitous decline as its greatest players have routinely missed matches to compete in T20 leagues throughout the world.
West Indies will begin as underdogs in the forthcoming Test series against Australia, in stark contrast to the days when Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards ruled international cricket.
Lara, who will coach the visitors against Australia, believes the board must do all possible to retain promising young players and instill in them the value of playing for the West Indies.
We have to confront the realities, after all. The West Cricket Board is finding it tough to compete with such lucrative chances for our cricketers in the franchise cricket that is being played throughout the world, he stated on SEN Sportsday.
I believe we must first strive to retain the young ones, the adolescents. To hear an 18- or 19-year-old remark, “I’m going to the IPL,” or “I don’t care about West Indies cricket.”
It’s not entirely his fault. I just think we haven’t promoted what West Indies cricket means to us as Caribbean people and why you should play for the West Indies, remarked Lara.
The West Indies are presently ranked eighth in the ICC Test rankings, having last defeated Australia in a Test match in 2003.
The Windies have also not won a test match in Australia since 1997.
I’m looking forward to seeing the talent- Brian Lara
Lara underlined his wish for the West Indies to put up a tough fight against the Aussies in the next series, similar to what they did in the Perth Test last summer.
I want to see the talent shine. There is a lot of skill here.
There has always been a lot of talent, but this is a much larger platform. This is not Mickey Mouse; this is the real stuff, and Australia will not impose quotas.
Australia has now won three Test matches this summer and will seek to make it five in a row.
So I want to see some fight, and I remember being proud of the squad in Perth 13 months ago when we lost on the fifth day of a Test match, he said.
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