Lara keen to play for West Indies

CHAGUARAMAS—Brian Lara, excluded from the last West Indies squad following a sponsorship row affecting 10 top players, hopes to make the tour of Australia in November.
Lara sat out the tour of Sri Lanka and also missed the first Test at home to South Africa because of the dispute. The star batsman said: “I just want to play cricket. It’s very important for me and for West Indian cricket that I’m out on the field playing.”
Player reps are trying to make peace with the West Indies Cricket Board.
Trinidian Lara and Jamaican star Chris Gayle are currently in Melbourne as members of the World squad to take on Australia in three one-day internationals and a Test match.
Meanwhile, West Indies Players Association president Dinanath Ramnarine is in talks with the WICB.
But neither Lara nor Gayle are sure about the progress of negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute. The two sides will aim to put an end to the row in which the demands of team sponsors conflicted with individual player’s own deals with other companies and their day-to-day life.
Lara said: “It’s sad that the West Indies is playing, I’m fully fit, Ramnaresh Sarwan is fully fit, Chris Gayle is fully fit and we were not out there playing in Sri Lanka.
I’m hoping that I’ll be staying on here for the series. “Hopefully that can be sorted out. I think Ramnarine and the board is actually working behind the scenes now to ensure that the best team comes to Australia.”
“I think they’re trying to put some sort of mechanism in place that if things don’t work out on the table, we’re still going to have the best people playing.
“I don’t really understand everything. But I’m hoping that in the next few weeks I’ll be staying on here for the series.” Three Tests between Australia and West Indies are scheduled throughout November.—Online