No problems with Lara, says Bennett King

Bennett King, the coach of the West Indian team, has scoffed at rumours that Brian Lara was a difficult player to manage, but indicated that Lara might be allowed certain concessions in training to allow him to play longer.

Talking to the media after the West Indian squad landed in Australia for the VB Series, King said: "I don't know where it [the rumours] comes from and I was conscious of going in with an open book, having heard all the innuendo, and making my own opinion. But from my point of view, he smiles at me every day and I smile at him every day, so it goes all right."

King, who was earlier the chief coach of Cricket Australia's Centre of Excellence, suggested that it was important to handle Lara well, so as to maximise his contribution to West Indian cricket. "We've got to be mindful of his longevity in the game and how we manage him so we get the best out of Brian for as long as he wants to play," King stated. "Some people need to be treated differently and sometimes when you start maturing, you need to also be adaptable to some of their needs and the players around them need to understand that too.

"He's had 35 years in cricket and he's hit ten million cricket balls in his career as it is, whereas a 20-year-old's probably hit about 200,000, so it's not going to take Brian that long to get into pretty good shape."

Talking about his experiences with the team so far, King said: "It's been a pleasure to work with these boys from the islands and the limiting factor for them is the amount of resources that are available within the Caribbean to consistently train and put in the hours that some of the other nations have the opportunity to."

West Indies have been struggling in international cricket over the last few years, but showed signs of a resurgence last year, when they lifted the Champions Trophy after defeating England in a thrilling final. However, with Australia and Pakistan being the two other teams in the fray in the VB Series, West Indies will have their task cut out, and will start as underdogs in the tournament. They begin their campaign with a match against Australia at Melbourne on January 14.