By Charleen Thomas, www.newsday.co.tt

WEST INDIES captain Brian Lara yesterday said it was "unfortunate and disappointing" to hear the comments of his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting, that few captains would jeopardise a winning position to allow one batsman to bat for hours to break a record. But Lara emphasised that his team was not Australia, and the West Indies had no choice but to score over 700 runs to avoid a whitewash in the recent Test series against England. Lara was at the time speaking during a visit to the Port-of-Spain City Corporation. He told his adoring audience that the performance of the WI team "has been short of its true potential and it takes something like this to bring back that joy that's been missing on many occasions."

Lara said amidst the "support, praise and love in the papers today (yesterday)" he saw the comments of Ponting, "a man whom I respect a lot. It was unfortunate and disappointing." Lara said over the last ten years there were probably about six or seven cricketers who have scored over 300 runs, of which only Mark Taylor as captain of Australia scored 334 not out and the team won the Test match. The others Lara said, showed an expressed desire to go on and break the record. Lara stressed that the "West Indies team is not Australia. "Australia are world beaters. They are a great team.... they have great bowlers, they have capable batsmen, if one or two do not do well. "The West Indies team has been inconsistent....recently I have seen teams score over 500 and lost Test matches." He said in Antigua they were trying to avoid a whitewash and it was decided that the team needed to score over 700 runs "so that we could put England under a lot of pressure for the reminder of the match.

"We are able to enforce the follow-on and achieve our number one goal, to avoid the whitewash." Lara said he spoke to his teammates, the coach and manager and they all agreed "that we achieved the right total." His message to Ponting: "He is the leader of a great team, and of course he can afford to have situations like that when they present themselves, and to take another course. But for the West Indies, such an achievement can inspire the young team and our people." Lara said he knew what it meant to the Caribbean people to enjoy such an achievement like his 400 not out world record, and "I know for a fact it's not for Brian Lara, I know for a fact it's for my people and I hope it will be cherished for a very long time to come and serve as a catalyst for future great efforts from our team." On the forthcoming West Indies tour of England following the Bangladesh tour to the Caribbean next month, Lara said his team will be going to try to "get back the Wisden Trophy which we have not seen for some time." Lara said even in the days "with greats like Sir Vivian Richards, Ambrose and Walsh we have not beaten England for 14 years."