Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - SportLIKE A cricket version of Freddy Kruger, just when you think Brian Lara and the West Indies captaincy is a dead issue, it rises from the grave again ... and again ... and again.
For an unprecedented third time, the Prince will lead the regional side on to a cricket field near you. His first stint, let's call it Nightmare on Kiwi Pitch I, ended in him quitting after a fruitless tour of the Shaky Isles.
The second effort, Friday the 13th Part XXII - War of the Telecom Giants, saw the post taken from him last year and handed to loyal servant but utterly out of his depth Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Shiv fell on his own sword earlier this month and left a void that only one player on the West Indies team could fill - Jason, oops, I mean Brian Lara.
THE ONLY FEASIBLE CHOICE
Sure the pundits were touting the likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Daren Ganga for the region's most important sporting post, but for the short term - at least up to and through next year's World Cup - Lara was the only feasible choice.
The selectors obviously feel Sarwan is simply not ready for the responsibility and he has done little at the crease to show he has the maturity or nous for the job. It's hard to have a leader who gets out the same way time and time again with flirtations outside off stump or hopeful hooks straight down deep square leg's throat.
Some say the captaincy would help him mature as a player and finally tighten his game but do you want to take that risk leading into the biggest sporting event the Caribbean will ever host?
I lean more towards Ganga as the Test captain of the future but he just has one eensy-weensy problem - making the side. It's pretty hard to skipper a side from your living room. He didn't perform too poorly at all down in NZ but the selectors remain wary of his consistency and he really needs to shine against India later this season. Ganga's other problem is that he's not regarded as a one-day player and probably won't make the final Cup cut.
INCAPABLE OF INSPIRING
So, that just leaves old 'BC' (fill in your own words). There's no doubt Lara knows the game inside out but he just seems incapable of inspiring the troops. Maybe the players are intimidated by the greatest batsman of this era; maybe he's incapable of communicating with the brash youngsters in the side and, unfortunately for Lara, you just can't teach brilliance.
Which basically means we can expect more of the same from the Losedies during Lara's 'third-time' lucky stint; flashes of brilliance amid long runs of gloom.
The selectors had no choice but be afraid, be very afraid.
