Lara blamed for poor Windies batting

Unfortunately Marshall, now the West Indies coach, is unable to apportion blame to where it really lies for the list of failures of this first test tour of South Africa. Yet there is a sneaking hint that Brian Lara, the touring team's captain, should shoulder much of the blame for what has taken place in what has been almost two months of torture for former greats such as Marshall and Sir Garfield Sobers.

There has been no skill, no guts and little of the batting flair which dubbed the Windies a blend of spice and sugar and plenty of flambouyant strokeplay.

Mumbling that Lara has been the culprit for the team's demise as well as the open rift in the ranks are starting to swell in the far off Caribbean and could end up with his being sacked as one of the worst West Indies captains in memory.

Although Marshall declined to be as blunt as blaming Lara for the appalling batting displays, the West Indies batting slipped to new depths at Newlands when in their quest of a victory target of 421 they were a sickly 97 for six at the close and an early finish loomed today.

it is part of the coach's job to see that the side does not continually step on a banana skin; when it does, however, not prevent them from collectively slipping on it. They did it at St George's Park almost a month ago and Lara promised ``blood, guts toil, sweat and tears''. Since then the side has produced further evidence of batting embarrassment with Lara unable to find any real answers apart from two hours of batting magic at Kingsmead over Christmas.

Meanwhile it has taken Shaun Pollock an extra test to go past his father's haul of 116 wickets but the two dismissals to his credit in the West Indies second innings was enough to push him up the wicket table to fourth place and seven wickets behind third-placed Trevor Goddard.

Pollock (jnr) equalled his father's record of 116 wickets when he had Philo Wallace caught by Herschelle Gibbs, which was reason for the extra celebration.

There is still cause for concern, however, in the South African camp over Allan Donald and chances of his playing in the fifth test at SuperSport Centurion look in doubt. The idea for Donald to be on the field was no doubt to put some thought in the West Indies mind that he still might bowl.

But worries are mounting in the West Indies camp whether their two fast bowling war horses, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh will be ready in time, or will step down an allow the new breed of fast bowlers to take over, especially as the visitors have a series of seven LOIs to play in South Africa.