Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 years ago
Global cricketing icon Brian Lara has pointed the way forward for West Indies cricket as he shared his perspective on the closing day of Caricom's two-day Cricket Symposium here in T&T.

The multiple test record holder touched on many issues plaguing regional cricket while pointing out that having advanced facilities can help the game improve in the region.
Transcript
00:00The two-day symposium saw the heads in West Indies cricket giving their views
00:03on the state of the game in the region. Among those speaking at the conference
00:06was legend Brian Lara via video call as he is in India covering the IPL. For him
00:11it's painful to see what's been happening with West Indies cricket.
00:15We are proud people and want cricket and what cricket means to us and the identity it has
00:20given us worldwide is slowly being erased. We were so good, we were the best
00:25in the world. What happened? What went wrong? Even today the best players we
00:31have are reluctant to play for us. Is there any significance in looking back
00:36at the past to find the answers? Well in my opinion the problem and the answers
00:42are rooted in our history. They are just dressed up differently. The man who holds
00:46the highest test score of 400 not out brought up the issue of insularity in
00:50West Indies cricket. He sees it as extremely harmful for the game. We must
00:54attract all. The skillful, the underprivileged but also open the gate
01:00for the privileged. Get rid of insularity. It is the one sport that brings us
01:07together but somehow it finds a way of bringing out the worst in us. Cricket was
01:13one of the tools we use to show that we are capable to be our own leaders. Use it
01:17again to throw us back together. In this day and age Lara does not expect natural
01:22talent to solely do the job. As such he wants the region to have all the
01:26state-of-the-art facilities so that better results can be achieved on the
01:30field. The science of this beautiful game cricket has significantly changed and we
01:35have to catch up. The latest technology must be used in our cricket classrooms
01:40and state-of-the-art facilities for our practicals. There is no shortcut. This is
01:47Sira's business. From 131 test matches Lara scored 11,953 runs and averaged 52.88
01:55with 34 hundreds and 48 fifties. Vinod Narwani, Chiefs Export
Be the first to comment
Add your comment