CENTURION (South Africa) - A certain amount of sniggering mingled with outright disbelief was fairly typical of the reaction in most South African pavilions and boardrooms when it became known Brian Lara has been retained as captain of that rudderless, leaking hulk known as SOS Caribbean.

While SOS should mean ``Save Our Side'' the international distress call of ``Save Our Souls'' is more appropriate as those of a political persuasion won the battle to continue to wreck the image of the great West Indian sport on a batting prince whose image is as tarnished as is his batting reputation and continual slipping average.

There are those who argue there is no adequate replacement for the already discredited dictator, which is a simplistic way of viewing the issue. Jimmy Adams and Carl Hooper may not have much charisma, but they certainly have far more than the man who has devalued the sport which has unified the loose-linked islands of the former British Caribbean.

Just how the West Indies Cricket Board manage to come to the conclusion, with strings attached, B C Lara is the right man for the job is well beyond the thinking of anyone who has the game on the Caribbean at heart. It was as remarkable as was the spineless batting so evident during the South African tour.

The sight of Lara batting at the nets at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth the morning after that dreadful defeat in three days would have been enough for anyone to realise he was unsuited for the job. And this after he had the cheek to front up to the South African media with the comment ``We are going to dig deep and we are going to put this behind us''.

Anyone passing by the net that Sunday morning would have been excused had they mistaken the left-hander in the net for a member of the Eastern Province emergent side.

And this the man whom Pat Rousseau, the WICB president, announced Monday night had been reappointed captain for Tests one and two of the four match series against streetwise Australians.

Having caused humiliation in the Caribbean and among the supporters during the tour by leading the side to the first 5-0 whitewash suffered by the West Indies and then 6-1 in the day/night slogs, Lara post is to be re-examined on his performances against the Australians.

It comes as a surprise that those who fired him in November for his part in the pay dispute rebellion persist in his tenure of their flagship. Normally anyone with such a flawed reputation as well as record, and allowed his ego to get in the way of sensible leadership decisions should be sacked, or in this case countervailed for his dereliction of duty to the game in the West Indies.

What seemed parsimonious was Rousseau's comments, when addressing the media was that Lara ``needed to improve his leadership skills significantly.'' Then we read, ``To this end, he will be given specific performance targets by the chairman of selectors related to improvement in his relationship with his players, discipline, interaction with the coach and manager, and nurturing and development of his team members''.

Perhaps the WICB need to take a long hard look at where the game is going in the Caribbean before they made such a hasty decision. After all Lara is the one who forced Richie Richardson and Courtney Walsh to quit, and held a gun to the WICB's collective skulls; to retain the man who has done more to wreck the game's image in the West Indies than anyone before him defies credibility.

Lara has much to answer.

He went to England and summoned those who arrived in South Africa to rally around the demands for a ``better deal'' and then failed to deliver.

The Windies were called many names in South Africa: imposters, charlatans, phonies, con men are four which slipped readily from the lips of thousands while the children from the United Cricket Board's transformation programme feel cheated at the way Lara let them down.

The image of the West Indies in South Africa, and among the development children is one of disgust. If that's what Rousseau and other WICB members hope to perpetuate, they have succeeded and, in the driving away children from the game, damaged the UCB programme designed to encourage tolerance of the community through transformation.

The lasting image of Lara is South Africa is of his novice-styled efforts at St George's Park that Sunday morning. Had you not known who he was, and it was a guessing game as we saw Clayton Lambert, another left-hander jogging around the ground, suggestions were that it was someone who had won his place in the side because he looked useful.