WHEN Brian Lara signed a new contract with Warwickshire yesterday, the rubber plant in the corner of the Heathrow Airport Excelsior Hotel's Trident Suite was dwarfed by all the olive branches: olive branches and enormous carrots.
Lara, who was en route to the Caribbean from Sharjah, will earn up to £200,000 for five months' work if the club come anywhere close to repeating their astonishing success of 1994, when they became the first county to win three of the four major competitions. They were runners-up in the other.
When Jonathan Barnett, Lara's agent, was asked how much his man would be earning, he replied: ``That is a matter for the club and the player.'' But when I suggested the figure of £100,000, Barnett replied: ``If Warwickshire have a very successful season, it will be closer to double that.''
Dennis Amiss, the club's chief executive who looked as excited as any autograph hunter as he sought Lara's signature yesterday, said: ``Brian will be the highest-paid county cricketer in the country.'' His one-year deal is believed to be heavily bonus-related. There is no sponsorship deal. The money is coming straight from Warwickshire's swollen coffers.
As for the olive branches, they were waved yesterday by Amiss, anxious to placate angry members as well as some doubtful players, Tim Munton, the pace bowler who was snubbed by the club in order to give Lara his stripes, and the great man himself, who wanted to distance himself from his less happy memories of 1994.
There is such disquiet among the Warwickshire membership over Lara's appointment as captain, at the expense of the popular Munton, that Amiss sent out a letter explaining the decision. ``Since the announcement, six members have resigned and 325 have joined,'' he said. In the championship year of 1994, Munton led the side more often than the official captain, Dermot Reeve. Warwickshire won eight of their nine matches under their vice-captain that year.
Munton, who missed all of last season with a back injury but expects to be fit for next summer, has been treated shabbily and everyone knows it. ``It was disappointing that they told me nothing about Brian's appointment until four hours before the announcement,'' he said. ``They could have given me longer to prove my fitness. I thought I had until Christmas.
``Having said that, I think the appointment makes good cricket sense and I look forward to giving Brian all my support - if I get in the team. I have no problem with him.''
Lara was an outrageous success when he joined Warwickshire three years ago. He made six centuries in his opening seven championship innings, including his world record 501 against Durham. But he was also disruptive and undisciplined at times. He clashed with Reeve, who in his recent book accused him of undermining his authority. Bob Woolmer, then the county coach, said: ``The trouble with Brian was two-fold. We never knew where he was and he never allowed us to get close enough to know him.
``He was awkward to handle. Both he and Dermot wanted to be top-dog. He was inflexible and would often turn up at Edgbaston 10 minutes before a game.''
Yesterday Lara, 28, but with his maturity still unproven, said: ``I don't want to look back upon the negative aspects of 1994. But I had never played county cricket before and it was a learning experience. This time I want to win more friends and fewer enemies. I know what's expected of me and what I expect of myself. Reeve? Well, when we play Somerset, I will be looking hard to destroy them!''
Lara, gifted, intelligent and arrogant, may well surprise his critics. He was a precociously thoughtful captain of Trinidad seven years ago, and is now on stand-by to be named West Indies captain in the coming series against England. ``I am not happy with my form. But I'm looking forward to discovering it against my favourite opposition during the next couple of months.''
When in Pakistan, he asked Warwickshire to send him profiles of their players. During next year's Trinidad Test, he will be visited by Phil Neale, the Warwickshire coach, who will discuss the approach to next summer.
When it was all over yesterday, and both rubber plant and olive branch had wilted under the camera lights, Amiss wore an expression of weary triumph. Lara went off to talk to TV. And Munton smiled enthusiastically and tried to pretend that he had not been the fall-guy in the recent negotiations.