Lara asks WICB, WIPA to settle disputes

The West Indies skipper urged the board and the players' union to end their face-off and come together for the sake of the sport.

West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara today urged his cricket board (WICB) and the players' union (WIPA) to end their face-off and come together for the sake of the sport in the Caribbean.

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"Hopefully WIPA who represents the players and the West Indies Cricket Board, our father figure, can come together, not just on this issue, but on issues in the future," Lara said.

"For West Indies cricket to move forward, everybody has to be under one roof. Everybody has got to be moving forward in one direction and be happy with each other."

Lara said the tug of war between WIPA and the WICB was distracting the players from their primary task.

"I want to play cricket so as I said, there is some sort of work to be done to finalise things and I'm sure they (WIPA and WICB) are going to get it done as soon as possible," he said.

The triseries, featuring India and Australia as the other two teams, is to be held from September 12 to 24.

"As captain of the West Indies Cricket team, it's a situation where I have to play a very important part. I think both parties have to come together under one roof," the world record holder for Test cricket's highest individual score said.

"Being a part, we are the players, we are the employees and the West Indies Cricket Board are the employers and we have to come together and work and we have to work from the bottom right up to the top, but there must be some harmony between both.

He said the tri-series would be a "perfect preparation" for the Champions Trophy in India in October-November.

"What I like about it is that it will be perfect preparation for the ICC tournament, playing against teams like Australia and India in that tri-nations definitely will get us prepared for defending our trophy that we won couple years ago at the Oval," he said.