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THE West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are concerned about the immediate future of West Indies captain Brian Lara.

A WICB source in Antigua said that he may be suffering from ``burn-out'' after the gruelling Test series against Australia and the four One-day matches already played, including last weekend's back-to-back Third and Fourth ODI at the Queen's Park Oval.

Lara finished the four-Test series with three centuries (213, 153 not out and 100) and an average of 91 but has shown nothing like that form in the One-dayers.

``The West Indies Cricket Board have already held discussions with some of the senior officials in the West Indies team about the importance of trying to preserve the health of all the players ahead of the all-important World Cup,'' said the source.

``With that in mind, Lara has been diagnosed to be in danger of suffering from a relapse in his game, as mentally he is very tired after all the pressure of the Test series.'' The source added that the West Indies captain ``has been advised to take some time off in his best interests as too much cricket could ruin his edge''. However, the problem is that the West Indies want to win the One-day series first, so that Lara is likely to play at least in the next ODI in Guyana.

``Unfortunately Brian right now, is paying the penalty for some of his earlier action, because people will and are still always skeptical when he talks about any injury or illness. They always believe there is a lot more to it,'' the source said.

West Indies manager Clive Lloyd said that ``It is never easy having to play back-to-back Test matches (...) but it's worse when this is followed by seven One-day matches.''

When the Express pointed out to him that Australia had rested their key player Glenn McGrath, Chairman of the WI selectors Michael Findlay confirmed that consideration was being given to resting key players like Lara.

``But of course, all of this is dependent on the state of the series at the time. As soon as we are in a position to do this of course we will.''

``We have to remember,'' Findlay continued, ``that we want to have all our players fresh and fit for the World Cup.''

Conceding that the skipper needed a rest after a ``stressful'' series, he said that ``a number of niggling injuries in the team at the moment'' means that Lara, though tired, ``must keep on playing for the moment.''

The other problem is that, with World Cup set to begin in May, the 15-member Windies squad is due to arrive in England two weeks earlier to play several warm-up games.

``This has further meant that Lara will not have any time for any sort of rest and recuperation,'' the source said, ``especially for the wrist injury, which at the moment needs rest and ease more than anything else. But Lara will not want to miss the early trip to London in keeping with the unity in the team.''