West Indies find time to smile again

The elevating effect of Brian Lara's remarkable innings could be witnessed all around the Recreation Ground here yesterday. For the first time in the series, West Indian faces were wreathed in smiles, their voices no longer drowned out by the deafening, triumphal chants of the Barmy Army and their accomplices.

Over in the open section, adjoining Independence Street, the national flags of the several independent nations that somehow manage to find unity through their cricket team, waved happily as Lara inevitably reclaimed the Test record score just where he had established it 10 years earlier before advancing to his scarcely comprehensible 400.

With the crass inappropriateness that seems the hallmark of politicians everywhere, there was even the sight of the new Antigua Prime Minister marching out on to the ground to share a piece of the spotlight.

The hastily scribbled sign over on the popular side that stated "Our wounds have been healed" was stretching the point in suggesting that one innings, even as monumental as Lara's, had suddenly put right all the problems that bedevil West Indies cricket.

But it is understandable that the passionate cricketing public has turned to nostalgia for encouragement. In Barbados, the 50th anniversary of Garry Sobers' Test debut was celebrated during the third Test.In Antigua, the Sir Vivian Richards Foundation was launched on Saturday night. References to the glory days under Richards and Clive Lloyd help sustain the enthusiasm against the indignity of 47 and 94 all out and defeat by England in the series. There was the pride engendered by Lara's highest Test score and Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets that was top of the pile.

Then Lara's 375 was trumped by Matthew Hayden in Perth last October, while Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitheran closed in on Walsh's mark. But Lara has ensured that a West Indian of the present generation is again on top of the world.

What it cannot and, as far as the administrators are concerned, should not be allowed to do is camouflage the weaknesses that continue to make the team so dependent on Lara's runs. They were obvious even while the captain was creating his record.