Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has agreed that the atmosphere of cricket has made it difficult to understand the importance of playing for the national team. However he also said that players cannot be blamed for choosing money over their desire to play for the country.

Let us tell you, there are many players around the world who have rejected their team’s national contract to play franchise league cricket. Talking about West Indies team, there was a time when it was very difficult to defeat them. No matter what the format, no team was able to register a win against the West Indies. In recent times, it has also been seen that many West Indies players are giving importance to franchise league cricket instead of playing for the national team.

Now the West Indies team has to play a Test series against Australia at their home. Brian Lara has joined the West Indies team as a mentor in the Test series against Australia. Brian Lara on SEN Sportsday said, ‘We have to accept this. Franchise cricket is being played all over the world and the West Indies Board is facing a lot of problems because the players do not want to play for the national team and are giving more importance to franchise league cricket.

I think the first thing we have to do is retain the young players. It is wrong to tell 18 or 19 year old boys that I am going to play in the IPL and I don’t care about West Indies cricket. I think we have not brought West Indies cricket to us as Caribbean people and why should you play for the West Indies?’

I want more and more talented players to get a chance to play for the national team: Brian Lara

The former West Indies captain further said, ‘I want to see more and more talented players playing for the national team. We also have very talented players. Our players can perform well even at the big level.

We all know how strong the Australian team is and they will not give us a chance. They have won three Test matches this summer and will now look to the upcoming Test series.