Brian Lara put personal milestones ahead of the team when he was Windies captain. Him chasing the 400 cost his team the game.
No it didn't.
This is ridiculous statement.
Windies declared on on 751 (202 overs). That is less than half the match in time.
They bowled England out in 99 overs for 285. Job well done.
Of courser they enforced the follow on. England batted 137 overs to get to 422 for 5 and presumably that finished early, that is 438 overs bowled out of an expected 450 - West Indies batted for less of them.
If West Indies had declared on 700, England had already forced them to bat again. Now you can say, declare earlier and bat a second time to refresh the bowlers, but that is a risk of giving up the advantage of enforcing the follow on. It means the bowlers must worry about runs in the last innings a little at the very least. It makes a loss far more likely. It also means that the team batting second is not as tired when they have their first bat. Not enforcing the follow on is one theory to cricket, it does not make Lara selfish or responsible for his team not winning when taking a match strategy of batting once only.
The reality is Collins, Edwards, Collymore, Best and Hinds are not to bowling what Vaughan, Flintoff, Trescothick, Hussein and Butcher were to batting.
137 - 149 overs available to bowl a side out in the last day and a half. That aint Lara's fault. The bowlers never had to worry about runs being scored, all they had to do was get wickets.
Lara gave his bowlers that was down 3-0 in a 4 test series (due mostly to its batting not firing) every chance to win the game. If he declared on 500, England would have been in a position to declare well ahead after its second innings, set the West Indies a target and bowl West Indies out on the last day. England would have been in the box seat. Lara batted England winning out of the game. He did not cost West Indies the chance at winning.
