Lara plans to end one-day career

MULTAN—West Indies captain Brian Lara is likely to retire from one-day internationals after the World Cup. Lara will lead his team on home soil in the 2007 tournament and will then concentrate solely on Test cricket.
He said: “I don’t think I’ll be playing one-day internationals after the World Cup. The form has been sketchy. “At the age of 37 I know what is expected but I want to fire in the World Cup which is such an important tournament for us as the hosts.” Lara, one of Trinidad’s most famous sons, needs just 38 more runs to become the first West Indian batsman to hit 10,000 runs in one-day internationals. He would then join an exclusive club featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sourav Ganguly. The left-hander played his first one-day international as a 21-year-old in 1990 but is more renowned for his exploits in Test cricket. In 1994, he hit 375 against England in Antigua to create what was then a new record for an individual score in a Test match. Ten years later, having seen that mark surpassed by Australia’s Matthew Hayden, he reclaimed the record with an unbeaten 400 - also against England in Antigua.
Lara’s mind-boggling aggregate of 11,953 Test runs is also a record but he has had the misfortune to play most of his cricket for a West Indies side in general decline. He did however cause a surprise when leading his team to victory in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. By reaching the final of this year’s Champions Trophy, West Indies suggested they will have an outside chance of winning the World Cup, but Australia are hot favourites.—Agencies