Cricket: Have some respect, Lara tells Kiwis

Brian Lara at Eden Park yesterday ahead of the test match against New Zealand starting tomorrow. Picture / Greg Bowker

Brian Lara yesterday chose the week of New Zealand's coming of age celebrations to issue a blunt reminder about the country's modest international legacy.

Almost 50 years to the day from when New Zealand began what would become their long-awaited maiden test win, Lara has taken the chance to chide his hosts over their apparent short memories and lack of respect.

Having already fired a couple of rounds from the hip upon arrival on Friday, the 36-year-old followed up with some candid observations after practice yesterday, on several occasions talking about the West Indies' superior cricketing history.

Lara, still jaded from jet-lag, seemed particularly miffed that media had been so harshly critical of the tourists after the fourth one-dayer at Napier, and suggested he found it especially hard to take given New Zealand's unflattering international background.

"I just thought it was a bit disrespectful for a country that has a greater cricketing history than their hosts," he said from Eden Park, where the West Indies practised ahead of the start of tomorrow's first test. "We're so rich in our legacy and I felt a bit disrespected.

"I just think that the West Indies ... you know if you put the West Indies up against New Zealand and you scrolled down the list, you'd see a country that had a greater cricketing history than yours. That is what really struck me."

The West Indies are in the middle of their worst slump, having lost 19 of their past 22 one-day internationals and 12 of their most recent 15 tests, including the last six consecutively.

However, New Zealand went 26 years before posting their maiden test win, against the West Indies at Eden Park in 1956, and since then have constantly battled against a tide of better equipped and more experienced rivals.

Lara said the West Indies might have been down at times but were far from out, and warned that he was hell-bent on trying to make his final tour of New Zealand a successful one for his team, and a pivotal moment in their revival.

"I sense that this three-test series could be a turning point, and I sense - even in myself - a deep desire to win," he said. "To leave Napier at the end of the series as part of a winning team would be the greatest thing.

"I'll never be back here as a player and it would be very nice to depart in a victorious side."

For all that, he rejected suggestions he was the key factor in the West Indian campaign, saying it was far more important that he assisted the less experienced players in the team.

"Simply scoring runs is not a winning formula for me," he said. "If you go on to Cricinfo you'll find someone who has the most double-centuries in defeat - and that's myself.

"It's all about the team situation and getting everyone to perform."

As for the upcoming test match, Lara said that the West Indies had taken note of New Zealand's re-shuffled top-order, and the relative inexperience of the first three batsman - openers Jamie How and Hamish Marshall and No 3 Peter Fulton.

How and Fulton will both be making their debuts, and Marshall will be opening in a test for the first time.

Lara said the re-shaped top-order would definitely be targeted.

"Yeah, most definitely, any area that is lacking in experience is definitely going to be in our favour," he said.

And Lara revealed that the West Indies would at least have one high-profile supporter in attendance at the weekend - former Manchester United soccer striker Dwight Yorke, now a near-hero with A-League winners Sydney FC.

Yorke laid on the pass that led to the only goal in last weekend's final, although Lara confessed his body-clock hadn't allowed him to stay awake long enough to watch the game on television.

"I slept from about 2pm that afternoon until midnight, and missed it," he said. "But I could tell from the phone call I got from Dwight that he was enjoying himself."