West Indies captain Brian Lara. - Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR (CMC):

Brian Lara is thrilled that a brief training camp has been scheduled for his West Indies side in the Malaysian capital before they depart for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy in India.

The West Indies captain was speaking after his side flattered to deceive and Australia crushed them by 127 runs to win the DLF Cup yesterday at the Kinrara Academy Oval.

Chasing 241 to win from their allocation of 50 overs, Brian Lara's side were dismissed for a modest 113 in 34.2 overs in the Final of the three-nation one-day International series.

"The West Indies Cricket Board got it right and we will spend an extra week, so we are looking forward to making the most of this opportunity," he remarked.

"The facilities are grand and I think we are going to have a really exciting time working on our game together over the next few days in Malaysia."

More questions than answers

Lara acknowledged that the lack of success of the batting in this competition has left him with more questions than answers.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but the main thing is that we got to the final of this competition," he said.

"To reach the final of this competition was a good effort from the guys, but we have to work harder from here on.

"We have a few qualifying matches leading into the Champions Trophy and we will be working really hard on the players to get things right."

Lara's men certainly have their work cut out for them in the Champions Trophy, since they will have to play three qualifiers against Zimbabwe (October 7), Bangladesh (October 11), and Sri Lanka (October 14) to enter the main draw under a new format for the competition.