LARA
BRISBANE, Barbados, CMC:
MAKING A bold prediction in keeping with his often outrageous broadcasting style, Kerry O'Keeffe says Brian Lara is but a mere shadow of the player he was and will not make a significant score in the remaining two Tests of the West Indies series against Australia.
The former Australian Test leg-spinner, who has built up almost a cult following in five seasons as a flambouyant comments personality on ABC Radio cricket broadcasts, admitted that he was sticking his neck out in commenting on Lara's prospects for the rest of the three-match series as the tourists crashed to a 379-run defeat on the fourth day of the first Test at the Gabba on Sunday.
O'Keeffe, who took 53 wickets in 24 Tests between 1971 and 1977, based his comment on a detailed analysis of Lara's innings of 14 out of a paltry second innings total of 129 by the Caribbean side.
The 55-year-old, known throughout the Australian cricketing community as "Skull," explained that it was painfully obvious that the 36-year-old West Indies star batsman was not moving quickly enough to cover the line of deliveries and doubted whether the Trinidadian left-hander had it in him to make the necessary adjustments to be a factor in the series.
BLUNT ASSESSMENT
"I hate to say it, and I would love to be proved wrong in Hobart or Adelaide, but he's gone," was O'Keeffe's blunt assessment when Lara again failed to impress on his latest visit Down Under, guiding a delivery from left-arm seamer Nathan Bracken to Matthew Hayden at gully.
It followed a knock of 30 in the first innings when he was the victim of a dubious lbw decision by South African umpire Ian Howell.
In the three one-dayers and one-off "Super Test" against the Rest of the World in October, Lara could only muster 46 runs.
His overall tally of Test runs now stands at 10,903 from 119 Tests (including the "Super Test"), leaving him 271 runs short of the all-time Test aggregate record of former Australian captain Allan Border.
