The misfiring West Indians, rattling through South Africa with alternating bangs and splutters, beg the question over what constitutes genuine recovery in cricket. At what point do struggling teams stop chasing their tails and set a course in the right direction? And what ingredients need to be present for that to happen?
A hopeful few might draw parallels between Lara’s team and that of Kepler Wessels in 1992: like the South African, Lara is now a strong, enormously experienced veteran who has copped more than his fair share of flak; in Ramnaresh Sarwan the West Indies have the equivalent of the young Hansie Cronje, equally dashing and bravely suspect against the short ball; and Chris Gayle, like Andrew Hudson, seesaws between magisterial devastation and ghastly clumsiness.
But where it matters the two teams have nothing in common. South Africa in 1992 had Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes, the current tourists have Fidel Edwards and a collection of fielders with the fleetness and catching ability of harp seals.
The bad news for West Indies cricket is that not even an unlikely win at Centurion will mean much until they can bowl out — and catch out — the opposition.
At very least Lara Syndrome seems to be a thing of the past, with the middle order no longer thrashing about in the hope that the Prince will tonk a triple hundred.
And it is no coincidence that the change has coincided with Lara’s emergence as the first uncomplicated leader the West Indies have had since the late 1980s.
This weekend Graeme Smith will have to be the heavy he looks and slam the door and stamp out any hopes of a temporary Caribbean resurgence.
The series is safe, but Smith’s reputation as captain is not.