Bob Willis blames Lara

[Dunny]

http://msnsport.skysports.com/story/...788214,00.html

[Peter R]

I will cite a recent post of my in response to Bricktop. Willis is not far off target, at all. Exile will disagree but in sport there is an aspect called discipline that some, great naturally but lacking it, can get away with...the avergae player couldn't but Lara wanted everybody to like him and so was never able to instill the discipline the team needed. Pity.


"We have a chance to become at least respectable...but there remains the lingering legacy of the Lara influenced era...I had enough arguments on here about that; it's only in his latter playing days he realized the (negative) impact he was having and had some success in changing his ways."

[Karl]

...only think Brian never picked himself!

When I suggested dropping him, gamma nearly kill me!

[Gamma]

can you post that for me please? one of us may need to have our memory refreshed.

[Karl]

can you post that for me please? one of us may need to have our memory refreshed.

How long ago was that post?

Could it have been before the objection to selling (a real dropping) of Henry of Arsenal?

Lara would not/refused to play TEAM!

[Gamma]

if such a post exists!

henry was not anti team...yuh just bad mind. lara was ALL lara....i mentioned countless times how he dropped SIX catches off walsh when walsh was captain on a tour to pakistan all because he wanted the captaincy....i don' think he has dropped six catches since!!!

[Exile]

Could you find that article where he dropped 6 catches of Walsh in Pakistan? Seems my search engines can't find it.

[Exile]

Of course I disagree. You know me well. Let Willis go and "jump in the sea". Peter-R, where got Lara wanting everybody to like him? That's a new one.

[Gamma]

too bad! if you were following that tour yuh wouldn't ask me that question. try the cricinfo archives.

[Gamma]

try searching caribbean newspapers for the Nov - dec 1997 tour of pakistan...lloyd was the coach

[Peter R]

Why do you think Lara would take debutant players out "liming" til 2-3am the night before a match? If they were with the Capt. it must be okay...but I do concede that in his last years of playing he did realize that leadership was not about teaching the youths how to lime and pick up woman but how to prepare for cricket... too little too late.

[Exile]

See if you can assist nuh?

[Peter R]

The fact is Lara grossly underachieved in that series...Nov- Dec 97. He made 129 in 6 test innings, and did drop catches.

"He dropped an easy catch in the first Test and yesterday
grounded one that came right into his midrif from an edge off
Aamir Sohail, who went on to an undefeated half-century. Ian
Bishop, the disappointed bowler, stalked off to the deep after
failing to get any sign of apology from the slip fielder."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

[Peter R]

This is from the second test.

"Lara has scored 56 runs in four innings in the series and faced
86 balls. He dropped two straightforward slip catches and the
batsmen involved went on to score another 132. The mathematics
are simple: Lara is minus 76 at the moment."
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

[Peter R]

"Wasim Akram, Pakistan's captain, enjoyed some pleasure at his
opponents' downfall. "They have been hammering us for 20 years
and it is about time we got on top of them."

Those were mild sentiments compared to those of Lloyd and Walsh,
who went on the back foot only on the thorny subject of the
Lara-Walsh captaincy debate. A Pakistan newspaper had concluded
from Lara's batting that he was "not bothered about the plight
of his team".

Lloyd declared: "There is no rift in the team, no problem
between captain and vice-captain. People are wanting to flare
things up but there is no truth in it. Lara is going through a
lean spell. Because he is a great player people expect him to do
well all the time but that doesn't say he is against the captain
or wants the captaincy. That is nothing to do with it."

Walsh blamed lack of consistency from the batsmen. Asked how
many more performances like this he could put up with, he
replied: "I am accustomed to winning. I don't enjoy this. I am
from the old school where we used to show fight. Now we have
lost it.

"But we are suffering because two great players, Lara and
Ambrose - who has been carrying an injury -are not performing.
Curtly has done yeoman service for us but is in the twilight of
his career. It isn't for me to say if he is finished or not."

Walsh as captain has now lost two overseas series. "You don't
want to be in charge of a team that is losing," he said. Whether
he would be carrying on was "a question I will have to ask
myself and one the selectors may have to ask as well"."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)