Youth key to winning

Wellington - West Indies must find a way to give their promising players more big-match experience if their side is to regain their past glories.

Thats the view of their captain Brian Lara.

Speaking after losing the two-Test series 0-2 to New Zealand - a rare occasion for New Zealand to win back-to-back Tests in any series - Lara said the success of Mathew Sinclair with his 214 in the New Zealand first innings of 518 for nine declared had played West Indies out of the match, and opened the way for the New Zealand win.

Sinclair, said Lara, had a successful background containing four centuries and had shown he was ready for Test cricket from his first match at that level.

West Indies, said Lara, sometimes had to pick young players for Tests with averages of less than 40, and without the same heavy first-class experience that a player like Sinclair possessed.

West Indies lost the second and final Test by an innings and 105 runs, their tenth successive defeat on foreign soil.

However, Lara said he regarded the coming five One-Day Internationals as the second series of this tour, and said his team could regain much of the ground lost in the Tests if they played well and won the One-Day series.

Sir Viv Richards, the West Indies coach, followed the same line of thinking, saying he had to maintain the positive attitude of his players by planning for victories in the One-Dayers rather than ruminating on the loss of the Test series.

In answer to a question, Richards said the West Indies had benefited from the advice of Dr. Rudi Webster, the sport psychologist, during the drawn home Test series against Australia.

Webster would have been an asset in New Zealand, but Richards could not say why Webster had not been included in the tour.

Richards also commented on his future by saying he was not sure he would be wanted as coach during the coming home series against Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Im the type of individual who likes to take things step by step. We do have some One-Day games, and Im focusing on them.

Richards also said it would be a good test of him as a coach to lift the young players in the team for the One-Day series, starting in Auckland on Sunday.

We came here to do a job in the Test matches and we didnt play as well as we expected. New Zealand played well, they played some tough cricket, he said.

Theres no way Im going to allow these individuals to feel too down on themselves. Ive got to try and pick them up.

Richards said the One-Day series was important for his team to recover some pride.

The emphasis these days is on One-Day cricket, if you can do well in that, it would be a bonus.