Bridgetown (Barbados), April 22 (IANS) England captain Michael Vaughan paid rich tributes to Brian Lara saying that the West Indies batsman is a genius and his retirement will be a big loss for the cricketing world.

'He's a genius. There are not many geniuses in the game and we're losing one today, so we all wish him well. He's scored a lot of runs against us and it will be nice to play against the West Indies without him,' Vaughan was quoted as saying by the BBC.

England defeated West Indies Saturday in the last Super Eight match of the World Cup at the Kensington Oval here, what was Lara's last match and also coach Duncan Fletcher's last outing after a spell of eight years with the English team.

'I'm just pleased for Fletch that we got the victory on his last day. We've had a disappointing winter, but I'm looking forward to the next couple of years - they could be very good ones for us,' said Pietersen, who made 100 off 91 balls as England gave Fletcher a winning end to his eight-year spell as coach.

However, it was business as usual for the England coach after the match as he praised Pietersen.

'He has a huge amount of talent and a lot of skill to go with that, his hundred was a great effort. He has plenty more runs in the locker and he could end up being similar to Lara if he carries on working hard,' Fletcher commented.

Despite the result of the match, Vaughan offered a frank assessment of England's performances in the Caribbean, adding: 'It was nice to get a victory, and nice to have a fantastic crowd here and I hope everybody has been entertained.

'We have won the game but we've got to be realistic and say we haven't played as well as we should have done throughout this tournament.

'At stages today (Saturday) we showed what a side we can be, but there were stages when we also showed we're a bit rough around the edges as well.'

He added: 'What was important was that we know we play West Indies (at home) in a few weeks time and we wanted to get one up on them going into the Test series.

'I know it's a one-day game, but we wanted to take a look at their players and wanted to play well.'

Email to friend           Add to Del.icio.us