Lara urges Windies to come together

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West Indies batting great Brian Lara has urged his fellow Caribbean islanders to focus and come together in the build-up to the World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand next year.

The players and the country's cricket Board have again been split, amid a row about money on their recent tour to India, and Lara would like the situation completely resolved before the World Cup gets underway.

Lara, who was speaking to reporters in Australia, said: "We will have problems in terms of unity, in terms of performance."

The former Windies skipper also thinks that the team itself cannot only rely on only certain individual players if they want to do well at the showpiece event.

He said: "We have great players, but great players don't win the World Cup, great teams win the World Cup.

"We have to encourage all the guys. We have Chris Gayle and (Kieron) Pollard and Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo but if these guys are not performing, and that will happen, you need to have everybody contributing."

Lara is also hoping the BCCI, who are looking for compensation after the aborted tour from the Windies in October, do not pursue their $42 million compensation claim.

He said: "The fine is one thing, there is other intricate stuff we need to sort out to get back to being a competitive nation."

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