`Don't expect victory'

Brian Lara has always been a realist in the face of defeat. He doesn't plan to change now.

His teammates will be making a trip to Pakistan and the Windies have been decimated by injuries and low morale again; Lara's fractured elbow being the most prominent setback.

According to Lara, it all adds up to facing the facts of losing again.

I don't mean to be negative, and you never know what can happen in sports, but for anyone to expect the West Indies to travel to Pakistan and win the Test series would be ridiculous, the former West Indies captain told NationSPORTS on Saturday when the team returned from their latest losing series in Sri Lanka.

Pakistan are one of the best teams in the world, with four world-class batsmen and very good bowling.

I can tell you now it's going to be very tough to win, the double world record holder said.

Lara said there would be points in any series where a team played well, but to expect the regional side to travel to Pakistan and simply roll over such lofty opposition on their home grounds would be asking too much from an vastly inexperienced squad.

What we have to do is take every match for what it is. We have to play every session for what it is, every day for what it gives us, but we still have to be realistic about how much to expect, the diminutive Trinidadian said.

Lara said the series loss to Sri Lanka could have negative effects.

We knew we had a lot of inexperienced players, but the losses could be looked at in different ways.

We can be negative and bow our heads, or we could look at what we did well, and improve on those things.

He said he hoped the Windies players would have a strong mental outlook on the game, and not start to believe they could always play well at home, but were unable to win on the road.

If you look at India, for some time they could win outside, and they started to believe they couldn't, so they didn't. I hope our players never develop that attitude, Lara said.

If we become accustomed to losing overseas, we can never progress because we'll play expecting to lose.

We have to be thinking positive every time we leave the Caribbean, but we also have to understand it won't happen overnight.