Lara's bid to lift Windies morale

As rumours of a major split in the side emerged after what can only be described as a frank in-depth two hour meeting on Saturday, designed to thrash out internal friction, insiders indicated that the Trinidad left-hander's place as skipper is now under serious threat.

It is unlikely at this stage, however, despite two crushing defeats in the series, the latest being by 178 runs on Saturday, that he will lose the leadership to Carl Hooper. But should the Windies go down in a humiliating 5-0 white wash by South Africa, the chances are that he will not be in charge when Australia tour the Caribbean early next year.

Lara indicated there was no intention of calling on any replacements after rejecting suggestions which surfaced during the match that Clayton Lambert was being sent home to find form the inter-island series.

``Look, we have the best side here and two replacements. It is the best available talent, and we have very much the same players which beat England three-one earlier this year. We have to dig deep and look at ourselves and our commitment, and I include myself in that category, and see what we can do to make Caribbean people proud of us again,'' he said.

But a cloud still hovers over the side. They turned up to practice in small groups, and it was only an hour after the team was to have started the net session that coach Malcolm Marshall had the full squad available.

There was no mistaking, however, that on Saturday the tourists batting was ill-disciplined and had by mid-afternoon descended into the miss and hit efforts of a disorganized rabble while the team appeared rudderless and without convincing leadership.

What has been alarming is that in both innings at St George's Park the total time the Windies batsmen spent the crease scoring in 262 runs was 75.5 overs: or 5.1 overs more than the South Africans batted in their first innings score of 245.

On Saturday night an emotional Lara faced the media with the frank admission that his side had ``batted poorly in both innings'' but he was confident the West Indies would make a comeback in the series.

``We're not giving 100% at present and South Africa were the better team in this match. They're not taking five days to beat us: they are doing it in two and a half and three days and we need to do something about it.

``There are still three tests to play, and while under such circumstances it is hard to win back the advantage: winning back one, then two is possible. Trying to win the third is going to be a lot harder. There's no reason why we can't put up a propper fight.

``I promise you this: being two-nil down doesn't mean we are out of it (the series). And there will be no more batting embarrassments.

``When you have two world class professionals such as Curtly (Ambrose) and Courtney (Walsh) giving 100% you have to ask yourself questions. And two world-class bowlers don't make a team,'' he added.

Although the loss of two days play is likely to hurt the Eastern Province Cricket Board's pocket - the unconfirmed estimated loss has been put as high as R200,000 - and their groundsman is likely to be hauled on the carpet after careful criticism of the green carpet conditions by the South African captain, Hansie Cronje, the Windies went about their practice session as if nothing had happened.

Chances are that Kingsmead in Durban, where the second test starts on December 26, and Newlands, in Cape Town, venue for the fourth test, starting on January 2, will have lively, bouncy surfaces. Cronje said that his comment after the first test at the Wanderers, that he expected the matches to be played on four different pitches still stood. But he added a rider that he expected Kingsmead and Newlands would have result pitches.

While it was not his job to tell the groundsmen what to do apart from providing good test pitches, he did express concern about batsmen battling with pitches which made it hard to build a total of substance.

``It is hard enough when you face such top bowlers as Ambrose and Walsh, but for batsmen such as Herschelle Gibbs making their way in game at test level to bat on such surfaces. It is not at all good for the game,'' Cronje confided.

There was also an indication from Bob Woolmer, the coach, that he was unhappy over the type of pitches which had been prepared for the first two matches and was concerned about those at Kingsmead and at Newlands.

As for Cronje's visit to Allan Donald on the field after the South African fast bowler had been felled by a bouncer from Ambrose, Cronje grinned, ``I went to remind AD of Devon Malcolm and his retort after being hit on the helmet at the Oval in 1994.''