Bridgetown (Barbados), April 24 (IANS-CMC) Brian Lara's career as West Indies captain for an unprecedented three terms was 'mixed', says West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Ken Gordon.

'If I had to sum it up, I would say it was mixed,' Gordon told CMC CricketPlus in a wide-ranging interview as he reacted to Lara's dramatic retirement announcement.

Gordon was instrumental in having Lara appointed as skipper for a third time April last year ahead of the home series against Zimbabwe and India. It came two weeks after veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul resigned as captain.

No other person has been appointed West Indies captain on three separate occasions. Lara's other appointments were in 1998 and 2003.

'He came on the scene. He made an impact by pulling the team together in a way that was not existing because if you remember, things had gone pretty badly immediately before that,' Gordon asserted.

'He pulled the team together. There was a distinct improvement in the performance of the team. It has had some strong successes in the tri-nation series and so on and we were very pleased about that. And we all thought 'yes, it's going to work'.

'We were all basing that on the talent that we know is there but the bottom line is that, that talent is not consistent enough, it is not professional enough and therefore it falls down under real pressure.

'Thereafter, we know we slipped because things have not gone well in the World Cup. Mark you if you look at it clinically, we have been beaten by better teams. The teams that have beaten us - Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa - are teams that are more strongly prepared, more professionally prepared and are better teams,' Gordon said.

He added that his greatest disappointment was not being beaten by those teams 'but how we were beaten because we didn't fight. You didn't get a sense of a genuine, serious commitment fighting it out there.

'And I think in a way that is what has affected most people in the Caribbean. Not that fact that we lost but how we lost.'

Left-hander Lara, who celebrates his 38th birthday May 2, boasts the highest Test runs (11,953) at an average of 52.88 in 131 matches. He hit 34 centuries including a world record 400 not out.

The Trinidadian played 299 one-dayers and scored 10,405 runs at an average of 40.48 with 19 centuries. He also holds the world record for the highest individual Test score of 400 not out and also first-class score of 501 not out.

Asked how he would like to remember Lara, Gordon remarked: 'I suppose I would always think of him as man who carried the batting of the West Indies for almost two decades, who has been a supreme performer as a batsman, who does not have as his strongest strength captaining of a team because there was too much baggage.

'Too many things were occurring. Whether that came from some of his own styles or not, the fact is when you are dealing with a genius like that, it is never easy. You go down the line of all the people who have been successes as batsmen from the days of Frank Worrell coming right down.

'These men have all had conflicts with the administration because they are driven by their convictions, by their egos, by the things that make them what they are. So it is not easy dealing with them but we love them for what they have done and we have to recognise that there is a difference here.

'So that there has been a disappointment in his performance as captain, yes, but that must never overshadow his true worth to what he has done for West Indies cricket,' the WICB president said.

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