PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
Brian Lara has delivered a stinging rebuke of the current structure of West Indies cricket.
The West Indies batting legend feels the time has come for a major overhaul of the system and urges the game's authorities to start fashioning a plan to arrest the current slide.
"I say it all the time that the Australians are very good at taking mediocre young cricketers and making them into great talent," he said.
"And (West Indies) are very good at taking great talent and turning them into mediocre ones. I believe it's in the set-up."
He added: "If we had a different set-up that's geared towards ensuring that the teenagers are put into one group and show that they have skills not only on the cricket field, but off the cricket field, as well as enhance (those skills), I believe that is something."
Lara was speaking after a special ceremony on Sunday at the Australian High Commission, where Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - who is in the Trinidad & Tobago capital for the Common-wealth summit - awarded him the Honorary Order of Australia medal.
He noted that Australia's success in the game in the last two decades was not accidental, but was rather carefully planned.
Stem the tide
"It's been going on for quite some time," he said. "The beatings they got back in the late 1970s and 1980s serve a purpose.
"I believe we need to stem the tide and to be something in the future, we need to plan now. (West Indies cricket) is spiralling, but it's been doing so for quite some time.
"I hope that some day, some astute group of people comes together and ensure that we try to stop the sliding and put a plan in place."
He said: "Maybe a five-or-10-year plan, so we can get back to some semblance of what we were back in the 1970s and 1980s.
"But obviously what we are doing right now is not working and something has to be done.
"Obviously, a defeat within three days is going to be hard, but there are some positives at which to look."
Great benefit
Regarding the current Test series between Australia and West Indies down under, Lara felt that Adrian Barath scoring a maiden hundred on debut was a signal for the senior batsmen in the side - including Dwayne Bravo - that they need to step up.
"A couple of five-day matches, even if we lose, will be of great benefit to us," he said. "Pulling off a draw, even that would be excellent, but you still have to give the Australians credit.
"The Australians (coming) off an Ashes loss four or five years ago, the World XI felt the backlash and I suppose the West Indies could feel the backlash this time."
West Indies trail 0-1 in the three-Test series, following an innings and 65 runs defeat in the opening Test inside three days at the Gabba in Brisbane.
The second Test of the three-match series opens on Friday (6:30 p.m. on Thursday - Jamaica time).
