LARA OPTIMISTIC ABOUT TEST SERIES AGAINST ENGLAND  

BY Oscar Ramjeet

 West Indies captain, Brian Lara, is optimistic that his team will perform well against England in the four test series against England which gets underway next week despite their defeat in the final in the Nat West triangle tournament.

Lara said that his players have already put their defeat in the final against New Zealand behind them, and would take some positives into their Tests. He said that " We have got to separate this from the rest

of the tour. Now the one-day series is over, there are a lot of positives we can take into the next couple of months, like the fact we were in the final and England, the host country were not" However, the last time England and West Indies played a Test series, England won three Tests and drew the fourth earlier this year.

The world class batsman added that "also we have had a few weeks of playing cricket in English conditions, whereas normally you arrive two weeks ahead of the first Test. He added "the guys have become accustomed to the weather and we are in a better position for an upcoming Test series than if we had just arrived.

Hopefully in the warm-up games batters can start thinking of long innings and bowlers getting the ball in the right areas and being more hostile."

The first test will be played between July 22 and 26 at Lords, the second between July 29 and August 2 at Egbaston, the third between August 12 and 16 at Old Trafford and the fourth and final test between August 19 and 23 at AMP Oval.

Meanwhile the West Indies have submitted a 30 man squad to the International Cricket Council (ICC) in keeping with the requirements for the ICC Champions Trophy which takes place in England from September 10-25.

In making the announcement acting Chairman of the Windies Selection Committee, Joey Carew said that fourteen of the players will have to be named by August 10.

The thirty named are: Carlton Baugh, Jason Bennett, Tino Best, Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Fidel Edwards. Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hurtley, Ridley Jacobs, Sylvester Joseph, Brian Lara, Hermain Lawson, Ricardo Powell, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Adam Sandford, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith, Dwight Washington, and Kurt Wilkinson.

Twelve teams are taking part in the tournament which is divided into four groups of three with the West Indies being joined by South Africa and Bangladesh in one group.