By Colin Croft Former West Indies fast bowler

Brian Lara would not have been appointed West Indies captain if I had been solely in charge of the decision.

If Lara's record cannot inspire his team, one wonders if they can be inspired at all

I would have gone for one of the younger candidates despite some obvious deficiencies - at least I would have been looking to the future and the long term.

The fact that Lara has been chosen for the third time is an indictment of the lack of real development in West Indies cricket over the last 10 years or so.

An important factor in this appointment is the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Despite the evidence of recent form, some in the Caribbean are convinced West Indies will lift the trophy - a 'Win World Cup' committee has been in existence for the past six months.

The thinking therefore could only have been that Lara will somehow reunite the team and the region in less than a year, with approximately 20 one-day games to play before the competition starts.

Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan were the three main alternatives to Lara, with Sylvester Joseph as an outside bet.

Ganga has managed to motivate Trinidad and Tobago to three domestic titles in the past two years and was one of the few successes of the recent tour to New Zealand.

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Gayle has played more than 50 Tests, but his nonchalant attitude is likely to have counted against him. He does not seem to have matured enough to assume the captaincy yet, but in a couple of years or whenever Lara gives up the job, he might just be ready.

Sarwan, the long-serving vice-captain, has not yet given the impression that he would be comfortable in the job.

And it is a worry that he does not yet command any real confidence among the people who make the decisions in the West Indies board.

Perhaps it will be third time lucky for Lara, who starts against a Zimbabwe team which, although only one place below West Indies in the one-day rankings, is woefully short of experience.

Most of the Zimbabwe players are unknown quantities, and one can only imagine the reaction among Caribbean supporters if they were to win the seven-match series.

Vice-captain Sarwan must continue to bide his time

The tour by India which follows will be far more instructive as to the scale of the challenge facing Lara. They are coming off great series against Pakistan and England and are flying high.

Lara's cricket acumen is not in doubt. But results were poor in his two previous stints as captain and there was a general consensus that he sought to divide the team in order to rule.

Now he claims he has their confidence and can set West Indies cricket on the long-awaited road to recovery.

"We will soon turn the corner" has been used repeatedly as a rallying cry over the last 15 years.

Now Lara has to turn that into solid achievement. Unfortunately, he does not have a great team to do it with.

Winning one-dayers and Tests, either individual games or series, is the first step.

But winning the World Cup is a task which looks almost impossible.