Lara retires from one-day cricket

Cricket: West Indies captain Brian Lara has indicated he will retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup following yesterday…

Cricket:West Indies captain Brian Lara has indicated he will retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup following yesterday's 67-run defeat against South Africa.

The loss in St George ended all realistic hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.

And Lara believes it is time to make way for a new one-day captain.

"I think this is the end of my one-day career, for sure," Lara told the ICC.

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"I honestly feel my game is over and we should give it to one of the younger players. It's really tough playing one-day internationals out there.

"After the World Cup the next one-day tournament for the West Indies is in June in England and I'd love to sit back and watch and see the team do well," he said.

"I want to leave a team that plays better. And that is still my hope.

"These might be my last two one-day internationals but I still want to see the team moving out of this competition learning something from it and that's all I can hope for.

"It's demoralising, yes, but I want to see certain things happen and I want to see the team move on."

While South Africa can now contemplate their route to the last four, having put themselves back on track after a shock defeat against Bangladesh, 37-year-old Lara has taken stock of a disappointing showing from his team.

"I thought we tried our best. But South Africa played better than us," he said.

"They were in a do-or-die situation; they came up trumps, showed their class and why they were number one [in the International Cricket Council one-day rankings] until a few days ago.

"They were outstanding, and we were outplayed."