Lara urges young brigade to improve Test mentality

Lara urges young brigade to improve Test mentality
By JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH Sunday, June 12 2016

THE ‘Prince of Port-of-Spain’ Brian Lara unveiled two basic principles of athlete development which could inevitably return the West Indies to their glory days of international Test cricket dominance.

Speaking at the launch of the 2016 blink/bmobile Future Stars Cricket Programme in Balmain, Couva, on Thursday, the record- breaking batsman urged the newer generation of regional cricketers to reassess their mental approach to the longest version of the game. He also called on the Caribbean’s domestic cricket associations to remind youngsters of the West Indies’ famed Test legacy throughout the 1970s and ’80s as an inspiration to rebuild and return success in this version.

Currently, the boys in maroon are ranked eighth on both the ICC Test and One-Day International Rankings, but sit comfortably in third place on the ICC Twenty20 Standings. According to Lara, the real challenge comes during a Test match with the ability to bat and endure much longer.

“I don’t believe it’s a technique (batting consistency), it’s a mental approach and how smart you are,” he explained. “Planning out your innings is very important. Knowing when and how to begin your innings, how to lay the foundation, assessing bowlers and just growing into an innings and getting to the total you want to get to and beyond.

It’s really down to the mental strength, the astute way of thinking about batting. I think for me, I had a lot of technical faults but I knew how to plan an innings.” Lara reminisced on his past experiences going up against the likes of Australian pacer Glenn Mc- Grath, and how he handled situations such as those.

“I knew when McGrath came on to bowl at 2 pm and he was giving me trouble since 10 am, I wouldn’t want to face every single ball of his over. I would prefer to go to the other end and spend time and pick up singles because that’s just smart cricket. If one guy out of five is giving you trouble, you would spend less time with him and more with the other bowlers. It’s simply a lack of mental strength and understanding,” Lara added.

The 47-year old added that this region’s rich Test cricket history seems to be long forgotten amongst the youth of today. He made an open call to the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) and all other territorial committees to rekindle the days of Caribbean dominance and educate these future cricketers on the many past players who paved the way for regional greatness.

“The attrition level and mental preparation for youngsters to play that level (Test) of cricket has sort of disappeared,” he continued. “I think it’s the responsibilities of the cricket associations around the Caribbean to ensure that the guys understand how important Test cricket is to us. You might say it’s just game, but with such a long history for West Indies cricket going back over 80 years when we played our first Test match.” Lara completed his innings by saying, “until a youngster can understand that (the past) and until they can tell me who Sir Garfield Sobers is and what he did, it’s going to be a bit difficult. These days you ask these guys anything about (Virat) Kohli or any of the young stars at the moment they will be able to rattle off the information easily. So I think it’s up to the associations and school teachers so we can ensure that they understand what cricket means to the Caribbean.”

www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,229092.html