Brian Lara Back, But Not As captain..>

[Ernest]

So Brian Lara is back in the west Indies team, but not as captain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cric...es/4411033.stm.

Might be a blessing, remeber Botham when he had to give up being captain?.

[Pete]

A blessing? I think he averages more with captaincy.

[Ernest]

OK then Pete lets reverse it, and say his having to concentrate on his batting, made him not such a good captain!!

[Kirsty Harris]

I think it's a good move - he may average more as Captin, but the rest of the team certainly don't! He was a very, very poor Captin, IMO - great plaeyer, but not a good leader at all!

[Zainub]

I think it's a good move purely because of the reason that Chanderpaul has in his sole test proved to be a somewhat more imaginative leader than Brian Lara. I don't know though how this will affect Lara, both mentally as well as his form. I'm hoping though (consdering Pakistan have to go to the Carribean in a while) that it makes him play poorly.

[Occasional Fan]

I agree with you, Kirsty. Great batsman, hopeless skipper. Good to have him available for play again, and hopefully the new captain will do a better job. The world game needs Windies cricket to be back on form asap.

[Zainub]

I'd love to see them play well too, but can that wait after we can secure a win on caribean soil for the first time in I don't know how many years, this is our best chance.

[Occasional Fan]

LOL, Zainub! I understand completely. I was lucky enough to be in Barbados when England won a series in the Caribbean for the first time in 36 years last spring. It's easy to say that we want to see the West Indies back on top, but I wasn't sorry to see them come second at Kensington Oval last year.

[Xiwang]

Lara had batted under other captains before when he lost his captaincy, for example Hooper, so there should not be any problem there. On this very rare occassion I agree with the WICB, Chanders did a good job in Bourda and the boys took to him and I hope the Windies continue on this line. I won't say Chanders is some huge innovation to the captaincy, what he brings is orthodox cricket, with respect to field placement etc. Lara was sometimes a bit too unorthodox for me, but still a good captain.

Although I like the look of the team now, I still think Courtney Browne needs to go... and they should try the Trinidadian keeper Dinesh Ramdin. The WICB waits too long to start grooming the players and Ramdin has been around awhile in the U15 and U19 Windies teams. Browne needs to go and Ramdin is the best option to replace him.

[Ninjaman]

The continual fuss over who the captain is just detracts from the real issues affecting WI cricket.

Every single game WI lost under Lara or Hooper or Adams etc.. would have been lost under anyone else.

I would like to know which captain is going to make the likes of Adam Sanford, Corey Collymore, Merv Dillon, Omari Banks, Vasbert Drakes or Tino Best into world beaters.

I would like to know which captain is miraculously going to make our domestic first class competition, the pool from which we get players, of a higher quality.

I can only judge a captain as hopeless when he has a good supporting staff in batting and bowling and then can't do a single thing with them.

Lara has shown that when he has something resembling an attack, he can win Tests which he did in 1999 vs Australia.

On top of that he averages more as captain.

Now he can be replaced on the sheer fact that his record is not anything to praise at all, but "hopeless captain"?

I don't think so.