West Indies cricket great Brian Lara has been appointed as the performance mentor and will be joining the squad in Zimbabwe ahead of a two-test series. Cricket West Indies announced Lara's appointment on Thursday and said he'll be involved with all the West Indies national teams and the national academy.
The performance graph of the West Indies team which won the Cricket World Cup in the years 1975 and 1979, has shown a continuous decline in the last few years. The team won the T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016. But the team's performance in ODIs and Tests has always been under question. But Brian Lara's inclusion in the mix is expected to bring positive changes to the team.
"Across all international Teams and with input into the West Indies Academy, WI former Captain and batting legend, Brian Lara, has agreed to assist CWI as a Performance Mentor," West Indies Cricket Board posted in a tweet.
Lara has scored more than 11,000 test runs in a 16-year career between 1990 and 2006. He has 34 Test centuries and 48 half-centuries in international cricket. In ODIs, he has scored 19 centuries and 63 half-centuries. He also holds the record for the highest test score with his 400 not out against England in 2004.
“I really believe that I can help the players with their mental approach to the game and with their tactics to be more successful,” Lara said in a statement from Cricket West Indies.
“I am really looking forward to Brian making a significant contribution to our cricket system by providing invaluable guidance and advice to our players and coaches. We are confident that Brian will help to improve our high-performance mindset and strategic culture which will bring us more success on the field across all formats. Everyone is excited to have Brian involved in supporting our players," Jimmy Adams, CWI Director of Cricket said.
Brian Lara is also the head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL and in the coming days he will be seen handling the responsibility in the Indian T20 League as well.
West Indies first test against Zimbabwe starts on February 4 in Bulawayo.
