West Indies captain Brian Lara said on Monday his team need to prepare better if they hope to regain their former position as one of Test cricket’s elite teams.
The 35-year-old expressed concern that his side continue to play their best cricket too late in the series after their win in the second Test against Bangladesh secured a narrow 1-0 scoreline in the two-match rubber.
”Great teams take the lead. We are not a great team as yet and are far from,” Lara said. ”We allow the opposition to sort of steer the series in the direction they want and when we get familiar with the opposition, then we take action.”
The West Indies, ranked eighth among the 10 Test-playing nations, romped to an innings and 98-run win just after lunch on the fourth day against bottom-dwellers Bangladesh.
But the opening match of the series was a disappointing draw and sparked Lara to stake his captaincy on a win in the final match in Jamaica.
Pedro Collins took a career-best six for 53 to break Bangladesh’s resistance and hurry the home team to a comfortable victory on Monday.
Lara’s record since his second coming as captain has been disappointing and his team have yet to perform well early in a rubber.
In his first series on return, a year ago in the Caribbean, Australia took a winning 3-0 lead before Lara and his men hit back with an historic consolation victory in the final match.
That was followed by a 1-0 series win against Sri Lanka, only inspired by a victory in the second and final match after the first was drawn.
Since then, there has been a similar success in Zimbabwe, and 3-0 reversals against South Africa and England where the West Indies’ best moments came after the series were lost.
”We need to cross a lot of hurdles off the field before we get on the field,” Lara said. ”Things like fitness levels, intensity at training must be very, very hard. I prefer a team that’s working very hard at the beginning of the series and sort of letting it ease as the series goes on.”
Lara said that he hopes his team can learn from other sports where preparation is vital to on-field success.
”My best friend [soccer player] Dwight Yorke knows for a fact that before a season starts he has to be fully, fully fit to last a season,” Lara said.
”They [soccer players] stress a lot on that. We seem to stress on the fact that we are playing cricket and we are trying to get fit at the same time,” Lara said. ”It can’t work. I personally would prefer a fit team playing cricket, maybe less talented I don’t know, but a fit team is definitely a team that is going to make sure that the other areas come together.
”Our preparation has to be sorted out. We have to look at areas in that to see how well we can prepare ourselves so from day one, if we are playing in Timbuktu, we are better in those conditions than the opposition — it doesn’t matter who,” Lara added.
The West Indies leave in the next week for a tour of England, which starts with a tri-nation one-day tournament in June and July.
There are also four Tests that follow against the improving Englishmen. — Sapa-AP