Former West Indies captain Brian Lara wants cricketers to stop limiting themselves by settling on a format of the game which they perceive as being the easiest that would see them simply get by in their careers.Instead, he challenged them to develop capabilities to be at their best, no matter which format they played.
Lara made the comments during Wednesday's Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 media conference held at the Savannah Terrace at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, to announce that he would host a pre-match master clinic for youth cricketers at Sunday's CPL finals.He said, "I don't want to see guys focusing on the shortest version of the game.
As we can clearly see there are a lot of players now that are test cricketers and they are not playing in the one day version of the game. The best cricketers in the world can play any type of cricket.You have to have good mental strength. You have to be open to what is around you; and I believe if they are short in those areas, they are not going to succeed."
Lara added, "As you can see, we have players who are superstars, who have never played test cricket and we have players who are superstars in test cricket who can't play this version of the game and I don't know why! The West Indies team of the past was the best test team and the best one day team with Sir Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd (and) Andy Roberts and those guys.
I want to see that allround cricketer that could do anything; that has the mental strength to do anything possible on the field."It was for that reason said Lara that staging a masters' clinic was so vital. Lara made it clear he did not want the youngsters to forget the fundamentals of the game. Eight years into his retirement, he admitted missing the T20 version of the game.
Some of the best players in the world, in T20, he said were still some of the best players in test cricket and he wanted to ensure that cricketers of tomorrow do not forget the foundation of the game: how to bat, field and also bowl.The decision to give back to young cricketers, said Lara, was based on the simple fact that as a child he benefitted from veterans who were willing to nurture him in the sport.
"I was a young player going to the (Queen's Park) Oval six o'clock in the morning to see the greats play back in the 70s and 80s and how important was that to me as a learning curve. I really wanted to do it.I sat in my room many occasions over the summers in England and every time I turned on Sky television there was a master class thought by me and the English youngsters would benefit from it.
I would like to do something that would remain here and the kids could learn from it," he said.Asked to comment on the young talent featured in this year's third instalment of the CPL, Lara declined, citing he was unable to see all the matches due to his hectic travel schedule.
Instead, he opted to shared his thoughts on the young talent that abounds in WI cricket pointing to the likes of Nicholas Pooran who is now injured, Adrian Barath who scored a test 100 in his first game and Kraigg Brathwaite, who he declared was a very good test cricketer.
Lara went on to laud Jason Holder's tour of duty as skipper of the Windies ICC World Cup team and said, "As a youngster being thrown into the deep end as captain of the West Indies team in a World Cup at the age of 23, I think he (Holder) has got what it takes to be a true leader.
There are some youngsters who can definitely do with that added help on and off the field."
