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Change Your Life! |
Brian Lara pulls out of England tour; future in doubt |
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News |
May 12, 2000
LONDON, MAY 11 (AP) - Star batsman Brian Lara has pulled out of the West Indies squad for the upcoming tour of England and may be on the verge of retirement, according to news reports Thursday.
The former West Indies captain, who holds the world record for the highest individual test and first-class scores, told selectors he wants to extend his self-imposed break from the game, the Independent and Daily Mail reported.
The Independent said the 31-year-old left-hander is expected to announce his retirement in coming weeks.
"He's become disillusioned with cricket," the paper quoted an unidentified friend as saying. "He prefers playing golf. He's been feeling the pressure and wants another challenge."
The Independent said Lara wants to go into sports management and form a company with Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke.
Lara resigned the captaincy in February and missed the home series against Zimbabwe and Pakistan, saying he needed time off from cricket. But he had been expected to return for the England tour, which starts in three weeks.
Lara underwent counselling at a clinic in the United States last month and was advised not to return to cricket until he felt the motivation to do so.
Lara began his exile after his side's disastrous display in New Zealand in December and January, when the West Indies lost both tests and all five one-day internationals.
He announced at the time that he would "use the time away to seek the assistance of appropriate professionals to rebuild all facets of my games so as to sustain the remainder of my cricketing career."
"It is a shame that a man with so much talent is not taking part in the game he loves," former West Indies team manager Clive Lloyd said Thursday. "I am really saddened by that. I thought the little break he had would have been the sort of rest he needed to come back and show his talents.
"Brian perhaps got a bit disillusioned because the young talent was not coming through quickly and the team were not doing well,"
Lloyd said on BBC Radio 4. "I don't think anyone had any indication that he wanted to give it up. I would love to see Lara back playing again - he is poetry in motion in full flow.
"He got on well with his players; there was never a particular problem there. He sets such high standards and if you don't meet them he feels disappointed. Brian is a lovely young man but at the moment he can't come to grips with things."
The first game of the West Indies tour is against Worcestershire on May 3. The first of five Tests against England starts at Edgbaston on June 15.
In 1994, Lara scored a world record 375 against England in Antigua. Six weeks later, he set a first-class record with an unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston.
But Lara has struggled to come to terms with the fame and fortune that came his way since then.
Lara, who became captain in 1998, has played in 65 Tests and scored 5,573 runs at an average of 51.60. He was back at his best last spring against Australia in the Caribbean, scoring centuries in three successive tests.
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