Lara set to retire

ST GEORGE’S – West Indies captain Brian Lara has said he is likely to retire from the one-day game in the wake of his side’s disappointing World Cup campaign.

Lara on Tuesday apologised for the Windies performances, including their 67-run defeat to South Africa on Tuesday which left them with little chance of reaching the semi-finals. Now virtually eliminated, Lara said it was time to move aside to allow fresh talent to come through.”I think this is the end of my one-day career, for sure,” Lara said.”I honestly feel that 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.”West Indies crashed to their fourth successive Super Eights loss, which left them on two points and needing a miracle series of results to allow them to creep into the semi-finals.West Indies will now be focusing on their last two matches – against Bangladesh and England in Barbados on April 19 and 21 – in a bid to restore a little bit of pride to the region.”There will be no semi-final place for us but we have to play with pride and character in the next two games,” said Lara.”It’s a chance to show we can perform with pride and character.”West Indies will tour England in June and Lara said he would “love to sit back and watch and see the team do well”.”I want to leave a team that plays better,” he said.”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.”Lara has played 297 ODIs and scored 10,354 runs at 40.60 with 19 hundreds and 63 half-centuries.Nampa-AFPNow virtually eliminated, Lara said it was time to move aside to allow fresh talent to come through.”I think this is the end of my one-day career, for sure,” Lara said.”I honestly feel that 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.”West Indies crashed to their fourth successive Super Eights loss, which left them on two points and needing a miracle series of results to allow them to creep into the semi-finals.West Indies will now be focusing on their last two matches – against Bangladesh and England in Barbados on April 19 and 21 – in a bid to restore a little bit of pride to the region.”There will be no semi-final place for us but we have to play with pride and character in the next two games,” said Lara.”It’s a chance to show we can perform with pride and character.”West Indies will tour England in June and Lara said he would “love to sit back and watch and see the team do well”.”I want to leave a team that plays better,” he said.”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.”Lara has played 297 ODIs and scored 10,354 runs at 40.60 with 19 hundreds and 63 half-centuries.Nampa-AFP