Brian Lara set to stand down

England Cricket / Editor / 11 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

West Indies captain Brian Lara is still hopeful he can help the side learn something from the World Cup, after announcing he is to quit one-day internationals at the end of the tournament.

The Caribbean outfit slumped to a 67-run defeat at the hands of South Africa on Tuesday, which all but ended the hosts' slim hopes of making the semi-finals.

The 37-year-old has decided to step aside and allow a younger player to take the reins but he is still hopeful that the Windies can take something from what has turned out to be a disastrous Super 8 phase, in which they have lost four out of four games after sailing through their group with a 100 per cent record.

Lara made his one-day international debut against Pakistan in Karachi in 1990 and since gained 297 caps, scoring 10,354 runs at an average of 40.60 with a high score of 169. He has pledged to continue his Test career beyond his 40th birthday.

"I think this is the end of my one-day career, for sure," Lara told the ICC.

"I honestly feel my game is over and we should give it to one of the younger players. It's really tough playing one-day internationals out there.

"After the World Cup the next one-day tournament for the West Indies is in June in England and I'd love to sit back and watch and see the team do well," he said.

"I want to leave a team that plays better. And that is still my hope.

"These might be my last two one-day internationals but I still want to see the team moving out of this competition learning something from it and that's all I can hope for.

"It's demoralising, yes, but I want to see certain things happen and I want to see the team move on."

Barring an unlikely sequence of results, Lara has two games remaining in his one-day career, starting with Bangladesh on Friday before taking on England on Sunday.

West Indies are expected to end their poor run of results against 'minnows' Bangladesh and are trading as the 1.29 favourites. The Tigers, who have already beaten India and South Africa in the tournament, are available at 4.1.