da bwin： In what could well be his last international on Indian soil, Brian Lara spoke on what this series has meant to him and his team leading up to the World Cup
Anand Vasu in Vadodara30-Jan-2007
Shivnarine Chanderpaul exchanges notes with coach Bennett King during a training session © Getty Images
Brian Lara has been coming to India for 21 years now, ever since he firsttoured as a 14-year-old with the Trinidad and Tobago schoolboys. Despitenot coming up with one of his epic knocks on any of those trips to a country where cricket is such an obsession, he is still loved and revered wherever he goes. He’d surely like to go out with a win, and talked the talk before what should be his final international on Indian soil.On coming into the final game with the series still alive
To come here 2-1 is good. It would have been better had it been 2-1 in ourfavour but it was a good effort to claw back in Chennai. India had totalcontrol of the game in the first hour and a half, but we were able to pegthem back and win quite comfortably. It’s also very pertinent movingforward especially with this being our last international game before ouropening match of the World Cup against Pakistan. The guys are lookingforward to not just squaring the series but also to regain thepsychological advantage that we had over India.On how important this series was
This series is very important for us. My understanding was that it was onthe edge and might have been called off. As players we wanted this seriesreally badly, it’s international cricket against a top ranked team intheir own backyard. We had a lot to gain from this series. Though theseries is not in favour of us at the moment, the exercise of getting outthere and playing, giving guys a chance to present a case for selectionfor the World Cup. We wish we had more cricket to play.On whether the World Cup hype has taken away the importance of thisseries
This series has been exciting, though India won the first two games, wegave a fight till the end and [Shivnarine] Chanderpaul batted beautifully on twooccasions, I think spectators got what they wanted from this series. I don’tbelieve there is a move away from what the result of this series countsfor. The series has held its own and as I said we don’t want to leave herewith a 3-1 result.On the importance of winning the last game of this series
I think I have mentioned the fact that we have came here with a very goodrecord against India over the last eight to ten months and they haveclawed their way back. Before the start of one of the games in this seriesI said that West Indies had won six and India four of the last 10 matchesthe two teams played, and that we need to work and try and create thatkind of gap. This series is very important for us, in terms of winningtomorrow’s game and maintaining that edge over India going into the WorldCup, and it can help us if we meet India in the second round of thetournament, I mean if that takes place.On which teams would make it to the last four of the World Cup
The way how the tournament is put together it’s going to be tough to saywhich four teams are going to make the semifinals. But it’s hard to seeAustralia not making the last four. I think it’s the only team you can sayare guaranteed to make the semifinals. It’s at that stage that wehope that they’ll falter. I’d love to think we have the ingredients too.We’ve done well in the Champions Trophy playing against all the top teams.We’d like that to carry. We are quietly confident of our abilities.On how the lead-up to this World Cup is different or similar to theother ones Lara has been a part of
I must say I was very optimistic in all the World Cups that I have playedin. Of those four we’ve only reached the semifinals once. But I alwaysthought that we had the team to do pretty well but did not. Unfortunatelywe lost a game against Australia in Chandigarh when we were cruising alongand that would have set up a meeting against Sri Lanka, the eventualwinners, but that did not materialise. This particular World Cup, I thinkthe build up has been very good. A lot of people call us unpredictable,some people don’t give us a chance, but I think our form and what we havedone in recent times leads me to say that we’ve got the game to be amongthe top four teams in the World Cup. At that stage it’s down to aknock-out scenario and we can go on to win the entire World Cup fromthere. It’s a feeling of great optimism and I honestly think the playersare working their way at the right time to hit form in March and April toget the job done.On what the West Indies need to work on
What we need to do is create a lot more matchwinners. We don’t want tohave to depend on Chris Gayle or Shivnarine Chanderpaul to do the job eachtime. We want the likes of Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith,guys like that to come to the fore. If you look at Australia any day anyof their individuals could win the man of the match. If you look at theWest Indian team you might say a handful could do it. The onus is oneveryone to hold the responsibility of doing well for the team.