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Brian Lara speaking to reporters following his team's victory
in the 6th One-Day.
ST
GEORGE’S, Grenada - West Indies captain Brian Lara plans to have
a word with regional cricket authorities, after having to endure
the disappointment of another set of sub-standard practice
facilities here on Thursday.
The
West Indies team turned up at Grenada’s Queen’s Park Stadium
on the eve of the sixth One-Day International against Australia to
find two of the three practice strips on the softish side.
It
comes on the heels of a similar occurrence last weekend at the
Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain where Lara walked out of the
nets after he was struck in the ribs by a ball that pitched just
short of a good length.
The
West Indies captain does not want a repeat of such conditions for
the rest of the season, especially at venues like St Vincent and
St Lucia.
“I’ll
be mentioning it to the relevant authorities and hopefully we’d
see some improvement,” he said.
“My
concern is how come you can get a good pitch out in the middle and
you don’t think the preparation area is a necessity to be good.
“It is a matter of the authorities knowing that this is also a
very important part leading up to the match. Preparation is also
key.”
In
light of the inadequate conditions at Queen’s Park Stadium on
Thursday, the practice session was hardly executed at full
throttle.
“It
was always going to be a light session. We had one decent pitch.
The others were pretty soft,” Lara said.
It
was in sharp contrast to the previous day when the West Indies
practised at the Shell Cricket Academy of St George’s
University, which received top marks from both Lara and coach Gus
Logie.
Lara
described the pitches there as “some of the best we’ve had for
the tour”.
The
captain said it might come to a stage where he’ll have to put
pen to paper to outline his concerns.
“My
tour report will be done at the end of the tour. But I think
something in advance, by word of mouth, on to the St Lucian and St
Vincent boards telling them what we want to prepare properly for a
match would be in order,” he said. “Hopefully that will be
taken heed of and we can move on.
“In
Jamaica and Barbados, we definitely get good batting tracks.
Something will be sent forward to St Lucia and St Vincent about
the preparation of the team. We want to be able to practise in
proper areas, areas where we can get our skills going.”
When
Australia practised at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, they too opted
to do light-scale work and net bowlers who were summoned from the
T.A. Marryshow Community College were not required. (Barbados
Nation)
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