Less Lara

Ooo, two posts in one day, aren’t you all very lucky. This time not Star Wars, but cricket news.

After an astounding 297 on day matches, 10,354 one day runs, including 19 centuries, the highest single total being 169, Brian Lara, the West Indian captain has announced that this World Cup will see the last of his limited overs matches.

Having set many records in cricket he is player that is well respected by many players around the world. Lara said “I honestly believe my game is over and we should give it to one of the young players.” Well, Brian is 37 but is clearly far from being a washed up player.

Lara said that he will not be retiring from Test cricket, so we will still see him hitting that leather ball around, just not as much as we used to. With his 11,953 test runs, including 34 centuries and a world record of 400, we can be sure that Lara will continue to entertain.

Lara is looking to continue his test career into his forties which means we will see plenty of Lara on the field before he puts his bat away for good.

This announcement comes after the defeat of the West Indies at the hands of South Africa yesterday. Lara apologised yesterday to the West Indian fans after the 67-run defeat which meant that the team were almost definitely out of the World Cup. Having said that he ‘couldn’t fault the guys’ Lara went on to describe the sad faces of the team in the dressing room.

This is Lara’s third spell leading the West Indies, and he has seen the team steadily decreasing in status in the 17 years he has been with them. It is a shame for Lara to be leaving the ODI scene on a downer, but let’s just hope that he will see them rise as a test team before he retires for good.