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Lara discovers the power to inspire Windies in adversity

This article is more than 19 years old
England's dream of crowning their season with a first major one-day trophy is ended by a team rediscovering pride in Caribbean cricket

There was no shame in defeat for England. West Indies, inspired by Brian Lara, who was everything as captain he had singularly failed to be over the previous years in charge, stole the Champions Trophy from under the very noses of Michael Vaughan's side, their first one-day victory of any consequence since a considerably more vaunted side than this took the 1979 World Cup across the river at Lord's.

What can have moved Lara and the team so much that they could lift their game to such an extent? In the great decades of the 1970s and 1980s it was pride in the region, in their heritage as cricketers and a desire to show the world what could be achieved.

They were the Caribbean's only corporate representatives. But according to many observers that regional, as opposed to national, pride has dwindled to the extent that many of the young cricket hopefuls see the game as little more than a voucher for bling jewellery.

No man is an island though, as the former captain Richie Richardson, invoking John Donne, said recently, not even Brian Charles Lara sitting in his Port-of-Spain palace. His insularity, and an inability to arouse the same passion in his players as had Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards or Richardson himself, had taken his captaincy to the brink.

On Saturday, though, in the utterly joyous aftermath of their astounding comeback victory, he spoke eloquently and movingly about the devastation in the Caribbean as hurricane after hurricane struck. Was it tragedy that finally gave him the glue with which to bind his side together? For once, he led by example not with the bat but at the coal face on the field. It was his blinding reactive catch at midwicket that did for Andy Flintoff moments after he had opted to bring on the medium-pace diddly bowling of Wavell Hinds.

He conjured a compelling fielding performance of the kind that was once alien to a more laid-back style of performer. With England struggling their way to 217 on a clammy pitch as mischievous as a kid playing knock-down-ginger, it was only Marcus Trescothick, magnificent once more with his eighth and most diligent one-day international hundred, and some more gritty late-order resolve from Ashley Giles that prevented capitulation. Just about everything Lara touched turned to gold, his team playing not for themselves but for him. This and the ultimate victory may yet be enough to save his captaincy.

What part Lara's inspiration played in the remarkable record-breaking ninth-wicket stand that saw the side home in light as close to unplayable as it gets is less clear. But Ian Bradshaw, the intelligent left-arm seamer, and his Bajan colleague Courtney Brown, a controversial choice as wicketkeeper, approached the task of scoring the last 71 runs as if they were top-order batsmen.

Not once did the concentration waver, nothing other than orthodoxy was given its head in the stand: they never once looked like getting out. Goodness only knows how they saw, never mind played Steve Harmison, bowling at almost 97mph, as the lights on the high-rise buildings across London shone out.

"We are used to playing in the dark in the Caribbean," said Brown afterwards. But not dark like that, surely. Behind it was a burning desire not to let their colleagues down, and that is the essence of a true team.

Vaughan was magnanimous in defeat, and in the team huddle that he called in the moments after Bradshaw had smeared Alex Wharf's penultimate ball to the boundary he perhaps reminded his side of all that they have achieved in the months since they arrived in Jamaica to start their Caribbean tour.

It has been a long road since then and the captain and all his players will be jaded. They have earned a rest before embarking on their brief, ill-conceived and inappropriate trip to Zimbabwe and then a more testing tour of South Africa.

Those players who have opted to toe the line and go to Zimbabwe will be announced tomorrow and it is not anticipated that Flintoff will be among them. The all-rounder is expected to join his great friend Harmison in opting out and there is time yet for others to join them. Small hope: morals apparently are a team decision.

To have reached the final of this competition - and come so close to winning - is a considerable achievement, but it is surely no coincidence that the finalists were those who had played the most cricket in the past six months or so. But England's concession of 35 extras in a low-scoring game - 24 of them wides and no-balls - was a crucial and unacceptable factor.

A huge statement was made in the semi-final against Australia, who failed to live up to their own hype and looked inadequate when placed under real pressure: the school bully found out. However England fare next summer, it will no longer be a function of fear.

Yet the fact still remains that the progress in Test matches outstrips that in one-dayers. They played well to beat India, but it was strictly a warm-up series and there was no Sachin Tendulkar to torment them.

Elements of the side are in place: Trescothick was the competition's leading scorer and but for a bizarre system involving man-of-the-match nominations would have beaten Ramnaresh Sarwan as man of the tournament; Vaughan played with brilliance against Australia although he has yet to work out quite what sort of batsman he wants to be in limited-overs matches; Andrew Strauss may yet join Trescothick at the top of the order, freeing up a place for Ian Bell or the newly qualified Kevin Pietersen; and Flintoff is the best all-rounder there is - or perhaps ever has been - in this form of the game.

Of the bowlers, Harmison and Flintoff continue to gain in status and Giles has sucked up confidence over the summer. He does need back-up, though, and both Gareth Batty and Graeme Swann, the latter newly moved to Nottinghamshire, must stake a claim. Giles, by the way, did not bowl on Saturday, the nature of the pitch and a damp ball militating against him, but this was not a contributory factor: the alternatives, a mixture of Trescothick and Paul Collingwood, took three for 39 from nine overs.

On the other hand Wharf, though fundamentally sound, has done nothing that James Anderson cannot do and possesses neither his charisma nor his flair. His batting remains akin to the airbag in a car: you hope you do not have to use it but it is there just in case. His bowling at the end was stereotyped and unsophisticated, his inexperience obvious.

Which brings us once more to Darren Gough. This has been a series too far for England's most successful bowler, for try as he might - and how he tries - he has lost the capacity to take wickets with the new ball. His trajectory is too readily hit by good players now.

It was genuinely sad to watch him in this match conceding almost a run a ball in helpful conditions. There is little sense in sending him to Zimbabwe, and the South African series is not until February. It really is time now to let go and move on.

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