Dubai: Brian Lara is the star attraction of the Masters Champions League (MCL) and almost certainly more masterful and elegant than any other cricketer here.
Truly the batsman whom UAE cricket fans want to see in full flow. Most would pay money to watch him in a net session, let alone a competitive match.
When Gulf News asked Lara, who will captain Leo Lions in the tournament and whether people can expect to see him demolishing the attack, he candidly said: “Now it is a bit of a different time, (my) reflexes may not be the same, but I do expect to play a part. I would not be here, if I cannot play a part in the team’s success but we are looking for team performance more than anything else. We are a fairly good group of guys and if you can get the team working well we can win matches.”
Which ever team that Lara played for, be it West Indies or even the Rest of the World, he always has been the lynchpin of the team’s batting. Will Leo Lions also have to depend on him too? “I have played matches through most of 2015 and played in All Stars in America recently. This environment is a bit more competitive and I don’t think the dependency on myself is as great as it was 10 to 15 years ago playing for the West Indies,” remarked Lara.
Lara famously hit scores of an unbeaten 501 in first class cricket and an unbeaten 401 in Test cricket. However, it is Twenty20 he feels more testing than any other format of the game. “For me Twenty20 is more challenging because in a Test, as a batsman, I was going out there and taking my time and getting set and then exploding, whichever way you want to put it. This form of the game for me is little more challenging because the game is shaped very early, you have limited time out there and you‘ve got to get things going, maybe a couple balls to get settled in and that is not the way I batted. For me, Twenty20 is more challenging than it was in Test cricket.”
Lara, who has always been forthright in his views on cricket, did not restrain himself when asked about his colleague Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who retired just 87 runs short of his Test record for West Indies. “Shiv, who played since 1994, had a tremendous career. I started with Shiv in Guyana and remember his first Test match against England. That guy with the most Test matches for the West Indies, playing for over 20 years, I don’t think people in the West Indies understand exactly his contribution,” Lara insisted. “I was very disappointed that Shiv was not allowed a couple of more Test matches, not necessarily to break the record (for Lara’s highest run tally for West Indies) but to have a proper send-off. Something I think he is very disappointed (about) - and unfortunately that did not happen but he has been a great servant for West Indies cricket and he has done some tremendous things throughout his career, and credit must be given to the man for how he has played. When I do have the opportunity to give him a call and thank him, I will because for me he was one of the giants of West Indies cricket.”
To a query from Gulf News on whether he will be picking the brain of his teammate Mohammad Tauqir, who captained UAE in the recent World Cup, about how the wickets will play in the country, Lara said: “We will surely do. He is also arranging a couple of practice games against local teams and it is very important for us to understand from him exactly what happens. As international cricketers a lot of us have played in Sharjah and Dubai in the past so we are familiar with conditions but we will be tapping into all the resources we have to ensure that we have the right remedy going into those matches.”
