Brian Lara's advice to West Indies team ahead of first Test against India
West Indies legend Brian Lara is impressed with the talent in the Windies team but he wants the youngsters to work on the mental aspect of their game before the Test series with India on Thursday. Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan have been invited by Cricket West Indies to hold a session with the Test team ahead of the two match series.
"Where I feel I can make an impact is their mental approach to the game. I feel as if I was to strike on one thing that I was decent at was mentally where I prepared myself strongly. The practical side is there for the young players but I feel mentally they can grow a little bit and learn a little bit more," Lara told Windies Cricket's official website.
Brian Lara is happy with the kind of players who are currently playing the Test and thats what caused him to join the camp. "I decided to join the camp simply because I feel this present crop of West Indies players, especially in the Test arena, is the right group of players. The talent that's within is there," he said.
Lara, who has scored 11,953 Test runs wants the West Indies team to win consistently at home inorder to build a foundation that will later help them win overseas. The 2-1 Test series win against England is a step in the right direction.
"The performance against England to win a series at home, I think is the start of something really good for us. We must lay the foundation at home first before we travel abroad in foreign conditions to sort of take command of situations," Lara said.
Brian Lara, who shared his vast stock of understanding, was happy with the players in the camp. "From what I have seen in the camp is intense practice which is good. I think the intensity I've seen in this camp is very good. The young players are working hard, Floyd Reifer (coach) and his team are actually putting things together pretty good," Lara said, while sharing experiences from his playing days.
"I'm hoping that I can impart some type of knowledge, some of my experiences in the past to the young batsmen especially that we have in the team to see if we can get a little bit more out of them because it's necessary. It's a good group of young players, we just have to get them thinking in the right way," he concluded.
