Eat your words, Mr Holding

By Joe

Dwayne Bravo's recent remarks about Brian Lara offering advice to the beleaguered side provided me with the food for thought. "Anything going wrong with our batsmen, whether it be Chris Gayle or Devon Smith, if he can't get hold of them, he will pass it on to me. He told me to keep my head up and to pass on some information, as far as batting was concerned, into the dressing room," Bravo said.

This reminds me of Michael Holding, baying for Lara’s blood right in the middle of the side’s World Cup captain. And the reason?

LARA IS NOT A TEAM MAN.

Lara has often been accused of being selfish, aloof and, well, a genius. But then what did Holding expect? Lara never got the team he deserved. Day in and day out, he was expected to do the bail-out job and every time he failed, thirsty knives were out. Holding should consider himself immensely lucky. He was part of the four-pronged pace battery. In case he failed, Roberts, Garner and Marshall were there to knock the life out of the opposition.

And the likes of Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Rowe, Kalicharan and Lloyd ensured there always were enough runs on the board to defend. In contrast, Lara was the lone tree among the shrubs. Surrounded by a bunch of perpetual pretenders, it is rather intriguing how he could motivate himself. In the absence of a teammate who could motivate him, Lara probably drew it from inside and kept going.

Holding thrived partly because of the team he had. Lara, inspite of it. If he was not seen hobnobbing with his team mates in the team bus and practice, it was no wonder either. Genius needs to guard itself from the corruptive influence of mediocrity. Holding has seen the pomp and hence is ignorant of the plight.

Fast bowlers are often seen as heavy-booted, galumphing nitwits, clumsily charging down with a hulk of leather in the palm. For sure, Holding, in his heydays was not among them. In fact his swan-swift action earned him the ‘Rolls Royce” moniker. A pacer par excellence, he has proved a disaster of a commentator and Bravo’s comments only underlines that Holding has lost his marbles.

(Picture source: Getty Images)