BRIAN LARA enters the final Test against Australia in Antigua tomorrow facing his second series whitewash as captain but clear in his conviction that the West Indies cannot go back on the youth policy it has adopted in the present contest.
"The experienced players have been tried and tested, a lot of them have come up short and I don't see any need to go back to them," he said following defeat at Kensington Oval on Monday that made Australia the first team to win three consecutive Tests in the Caribbean.
It put them on the verge of a clean sweep the West Indies have never suffered in a home series since the first in 1930 but which Lara endured in the 5-0 scoreline in South Africa in 1998-99 in his first stint at the helm. The captain's was a message to all those over-30s with modest Test records, who continue to dominate at regional level, that their days of international cricket are over.
In the past year and a half, the West Indies have recalled Sherwin Campbell, Stuart Williams, Junior Murray and Nixon McLean to duty. All failed to make an impact and were soon discarded again.
Yet the 33-year-old Williams was once more the leading scorer in the domestic Carib Beer Series last season with 827 runs at 75.18 and Campbell and other former Test players Floyd Reifer and Philo Wallace had over 500 runs.
Murray and Courtney Browne were the top wicket-keepers and Mahendra Nagamootoo, Neil McGarrell and Cameron Cuffy among the best bowlers.
The new West Indies selection panel headed by Sir Viv Richards, and including Lara, have brought in five young newcomers against Australia - opener Devon Smith, all-rounder David Bernard and fast bowler Tino Best, all 21, and wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh and off-spinner Omari Banks, both 20.
The West Indies fielded eight players aged 24 and under at Kensington against the mightiest team of its generation that had only one player under 30, no newcomer and only three with fewer than 30 Tests.
"We've got some very good players here and they are on the verge of making the breakthrough in Test cricket," Lara said of his young charges.
"I'm quite happy with the look of the team and I want us to play cricket the way we are playing," he added. "We are not to going to play Australia every day of the week. It's all about character building and that is what is happening."
A measure of the development is unlikely to be seen in the final Test in Antigua but more so in the two subsequent Tests in June against Sri Lanka, strong but not quite so intimidating opponents.
As it is, established wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, 35, who has recovered from the pulled leg muscle that kept him out of the second and third Tests, and the most experienced fast bowler Merv Dillon, 28, who was dropped at Kensington, seem certain to replace Baugh and Best in the final eleven from an unchanged squad of 14.
Lara had support in his assessment of his young team from rival captain, Steve Waugh, leading Australia for the third successive series against the West Indies.
"I think they're one of the few sides in the world who are on the way up and they've shown a lot of improvement since we beat them in Australia," Waugh said, referring to the 5-0 whitewash in 2000-01 when Jimmy Adams was West Indies captain.
"You need to give the guys time because there's a good deal of talent in the side," he added.
But he warned his team was intent on completing another sweep of the series and making history. Waugh's next victory as captain will carry him past the 36 to which Clive Lloyd led the West Indies between 1974 and 1985 that is the most by any Test captain.
"At the moment, we're on top (but) the greatest sin for any sportsman is to waste good form," he said. "No side has won 4-0 in the Caribbean, so there's a lot of milestones to play for."