Cricket: Lara 'exhausted'

BRIAN LARA, who has hit a patch of indifferent form recently, admitted yesterday that he is exhausted. The batsman, who scored a Test record 375 for the West Indies and a world record 501 not out for Warwickshire said: 'I have never played this amount of cricket before, and it is telling at the moment.'

Lara has been missing several times when Warwickshire have been fielding and he said: 'If I can get the right amount of rest I will be all right. Sometimes you go through a bad patch when you cannot get the ball off the square. I warned people this would happen - the records were a high, but everyone knows you can't do that every time.

'It is difficult playing cricket six hours a day for six days a week. It makes it hard to work out your problems, because you are always out in the middle.

'But I am happy with things. I came here knowing the system and I have got to get on with it. There is nothing to get disappointed about - the important thing is how quickly I get out of this patch.'

Lara signed a sponsorship deal with Mercury Asset Management yesterday, said to be worth pounds 500,000, which will take his total earnings to more than pounds 1m a year. He also has arrangements with several other companies, and some people have said that the work he is doing outside of cricket could be affecting his performances.

Lara admitted: 'A lot has been happening to me off the field. I seem to have a lot of appointments these days.'

However, his agent, Jonathan Barnett, said: 'Brian is not taking on anything extra. He is not missing any cricket, and the investments are sound business management. This is his only major contract.'