BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS (AP):
NOT FOR the first time in his storied career, premier West Indies batsman Brian Lara faces a challenging comeback.
This time it's on the biggest stage of all, the cricket World Cup.
Now 33 and preparing for his fourth tournament, the left-hander returns following a four-month lay-off due to an unspecified illness, first suspected to be hepatitis.
Three times now since his brief, self-imposed exile after resigning as captain in 2000, he has been hit by physical problems attempting to rekindle his record-breaking career.
A bothersome hamstring forced him to miss summer tours of Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2001. His next return, emphatically in Sri Lanka that November, was cut short by a nasty elbow injury on tour.
The left-hander had put renewed questions about his future in the game to rest by hammering Sri Lanka for three centuries among 688 runs in three Tests, in a losing cause.
But a freak collision with Sri Lankan fielder Marvan Atapattu in a subsequent one-dayer resulted in a dislocated and fractured left elbow that sidelined him again until last March.
He had just scored his first century since, against Kenya in last September's ICC Champions Trophy, when he was struck by his most recent setback.
Lara already possesses a phenomenal record and is widely acknowledged as one of the greats of the modern game. But since the seven weeks in 1994 when he registered a test-high 375 and followed soon afterwards with a record first-class mark of 501 not out, his genius has been flawed by a variety of problems.
The last half of the 1990s brought troubling times away from the field of play. There were surprising withdrawals from teams, disciplinary issues and false accusations of match-fixing. They all led to questions over his commitment to West Indies cricket.
Despite this, he was elevated to the captaincy in 1998. He quit after two years and hinted at retirement as he took a six-month break from the game and the pressures associated with it.
He has been back almost three years and seems more at ease back in the ranks as classy middle order batsman.
The fire still burns within and the wristy left-hander is keen to prove he is still the world's best, ahead of India's Sachin Tendulkar and Australia's Matthew Hayden.
"I'm looking forward to reinstating myself as the No. 1 batsman in the world," he said before departing for South Africa. "That is my purpose in going to South Africa, to ensure that I get back up there at the top and to ensure West Indies come back with the World Cup."
His match-winning qualities were emphasised by his one World Cup century in 19 matches. In the 1996 quarter-final in Pakistan, his scintillating 111 wrecked South Africa's 100 per cent record and sent the West Indies through despite the infamous upset loss to Kenya earlier in the group stages.
They were edged by Australia in that semi-final, the closest they have come since they won the cup's first two editions in 1975 and 1979, and lost to India in the final in 1983.
If Lara is back to his best, he could again spearhead a West Indies charge late into the competition.
