Former West Indies captain Brian Lara (right) with Dwayne Bravo. - file

LONDON (CMC):

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara wants to play a role in the development of West Indies cricket.

Lara scored almost 12,000 runs in 131 Tests and over 10,000 in 299 One-day Internationals before he retired from international cricket following the World Cup staged in the Caribbean for the first time earlier this year.

"The infrastructure and what's necessary to produce good cricket is not there in the West Indies," he told the BBC in an interview.

"I'm interested in what are we doing at the grassroots level and I don't see anything in that direction.

Infrastructure

"It doesn't matter who is the coach or who is playing - if the infrastructure isn't there, you're not going to produce the cricket you want to see."

Because of a lack of a properly structured development programme, Lara feels it will take a long time before the West Indies regain some level of consistency.

"I am hoping that the West Indies can make a comeback soon," he said.

"I actually applaud the players when they have a good match, or a good innings, or a good bowling performance because I know things are not in place to produce good, consistent cricket from the players in the West Indies."

Lara is in England, where he has been conducting personal and playing chaperone to teenaged Trinidad & Tobago batsman Adrian Barath.