Brian Lara no more mentor of Windies, stint ended with seven-day camp

Brian Lara

A casual good luck message from this correspondent to Caribbean batting legend Brian Lara, who mentored the West Indies team at a camp in Dominica recently resulted in news that he is no longer a mentor to the team.

Lara was expected to be at the first Test against India at Dominica. Instead he was home in Trinidad. "The West Indies cricket board invited me to be mentor for seven days for their preparatory camp, which I did and came back to Trinidad. As simple as that," Lara remarked. When asked if seven days were enough for such a high profile series, Lara replied: "It is not enough, but what could I do? They wanted me to be there for seven days. I did just that."

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Lara revealed what he spoke to the players on. "Basically, I tried to brief them about the tradition of West Indies cricket and why they should try harder. Then, the mental aspect, the importance of winning the big matches and a little bit of technical discussion etc," Lara, 54, said.

India have emerged victorious in the last eight Test series. The last time West Indies won was when Carl Hooper led them in the Caribbean during the 2001-02 season. "Anything for West Indies cricket, anytime for West Indies, I shall never say no to West Indies," he signed off.