LONDON, England (CMC):

West Indies captain Brian Lara is declaring support for embattled teammate Marlon Samuels over allegations that the middle-order batsman leaked team information to an Indian bookmaker last month.

Suggestions of possible match-fixing charges against Samuels surfaced Wednesday when Nagpur police said they had taped conversations of Samuels giving team information to bookie Mukesh Kocharon the eve of the Nagpur One-Day International (ODI) on January 21.

In a Cricinfo story yesterday, Lara was quoted by NDTV as saying that Samuels has his "full support" even though he has not yet been able to speak to him.

"Ultimately, I would like to speak to Marlon to let him know that he has the full support of myself and the other players. He needs to stay focused on the things he can control. We have a World Cup to win," Lara said.