Brian Lara will miss the three-match one-day cricket international series against Pakistan starting on Wednesday after the West Indies selectors decided to rest the 36-year-old left-hander.
West Indies chairperson of selectors Joey Carew said his panel felt it necessary to give the double world-record-holder a break before the series of two Test matches against Pakistan, which follows the one-dayers.
”His absence puts a lot of additional responsibility on the team and we look forward to them taking up this challenge,” Carew said.
Team manager Tony Howard said he does not believe Lara’s absence is going to have much of an effect.
”He was not here last year against Bangladesh and we won both games, so I do not think him not being here will create much of a problem,” Howard said.
Left-hander Wavell Hinds has returned to replace Lara despite a run of poor scores against South Africa in the past three Tests and the first two matches in the series of five one-day internationals.
Fast-bowler Pedro Collins also returns to the 13-man squad for the three matches in place of his brother Fidel Edwards.
The West Indies, swept 5-0 by South Africa after consecutive losses over the weekend in Trinidad, will be keen to bounce back against the Pakistanis.
”We have to put the South Africa series behind us and take what we learnt from it into the matches against the Pakistanis, and I look forward to some measure of success in this series,” Carew said.
Earlier, Pakistan manager Salim Altaf said he believes the West Indies are still dangerous, even after South Africa completed an unbeaten Caribbean tour at the weekend.
”The West Indies are an unpredictable side,” Altaf said in Antigua before departing for St Vincent. ”Just to say they have been beaten by South Africa, quite frankly that doesn’t mean anything to us.”
Pakistan have never won a series on West Indies soil. The West Indies’ recent loss to South Africa was the first time the Caribbean side failed to win a home one-day international. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writer E Glenford Prescott contributed to this report from Kingstown