DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC) – Former West Indies batting star Brian Lara believes Zimbabwe will do well to focus on the mental aspect of their game for the Cricket World Cup starting later this month. The 41-year-old serves as a batting consultant with the African nation which is currently rounding off preparations for the World Cup with a training camp at the ICC’s High Performance Centre.
“Raising the level of confidence and self-esteem in the players is a major factor,” Lara told the Khaleej Times here.
“A lot of players around the world get really tied up in the technical aspects, which is important. But, I believe that when you get to this level you must have done something good performance-wise to get here and now it’s a matter of staying there.
“The mental side of it is very, very important. My mentality was my strength and I’ll be trying as much as possible to get the guys thinking at a different level, being motivated and understanding the game … while also getting out there and doing the practical work as well.”
Zimbabwe face a tough campaign in the World Cup, grouped with defending champions Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Canada and Kenya for the February 19 to March 2 tournament.
They enter the showpiece on the backs of a dismal run, having lost six of their last 11 ODIs but Lara, who joined the side late last year, said he wanted to see an improvement in the coming weeks.
“What I really want to see, especially in the batting order, is that the team is more prolific in terms of their run-scoring,” the 41-year-old said.
“Getting bigger scores, getting runs much more regularly and creating more match-winners inside the group, with less dependency on any one or two players. That’s going to be key.”
Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said his side had benefited from the former Windies captain’s advice.
“We’re just trying to get as much information as we can from him,” said the 24-year-old, who has played 122 ODIs.
“He has obviously played a lot of cricket and is an experienced player from the past, so you just have to try and learn from what he brings to the team.
“We’re learning a lot and we’re still doing so. We have to learn from Lara while he is still here and, hopefully, we’ll make use of him when we go to India.”
Zimbabwe are scheduled to leave here next Wednesday for Chennai where they play their first official World Cup warm-up against South Africa before moving to Nagpur for the second against Ireland.