Time for the seniors to stand up and be counted: Lara

Trelawny, Jamaica, Mar 10 (UNI) West Indies captain Brian Lara has said that time has come for the experienced players in the team to stand up and be counted.

Lara made this observation after his team was thrashed by India by nine wickets in their last warm up match before the World Cup.

The seniors need to show more application and most of them know their job, he said.

''The defeat has left the team with a lot of work to do before the World Cup opener,'' Lara admitted.

''On the flip side it is good that we suffered such a defeat and put up such a performance before the World Cup,'' Lara told media persons.

''It's good to get such performance out of the way early.

Remember, the World Cup has not yet begun and this is a very long tournament. In the Champions Trophy we were bowled out for 80 (by Sri Lanka) but four days later we came back strongly to beat Australia,'' he added.

''What we need to do is manage the chronic problem of not being able to recover from collapses. Everyone knows what to do, they have to go out and do it on a more regular basis.'' ''I think we are capable of beating anyone, but in this match our plan for the game did not get anywhere as we did not apply ourselves,'' Lara said.

''We now need to apply our minds to the reasons for suffering such collapses and hope to turn it around,'' he said and added ''But this does not take away the credit from the Indian bowlers. They bowled well and put the ball in the right place.'' ''I am not sitting here to criticise any of my players. They are capable to rise to the occasion and this defeat hopefully will act as a tonic for them to perform,'' he said.

UNI