Bothersome beauty bewitches Lara
Brian Lara's batting slump has been blamed on an 18-year-old English model the West Indies star has been allowed to bring with him to Australia.
The 31-year-old Lara, who scored a duck and four runs in his side's capitulation to Australia in the first Test in Brisbane last weekend, refused to answer questions on Tuesday before the tourists left for Perth for the second Test starting Friday.
But he was spotted with 18-year-old covergirl Lynnsey Ward at a theme park at Gold Coast on Monday when the West Indies team took a day off.
The rest of the West Indies team have been banned from bringing wives and girlfriends on tour.
And West Indies team management banned questions about the side's dismal form.
Ward, named Millenium Babe by England's Daily Star, has been by Lara's side since the team arrived in Australia last month. She was expected to return home before Christmas.
She reportedly met Lara while working as a receptionist at Durham County Cricket Club in England.
Lara, who holds world records for the highest individual Test and first-class scores, has also had to cope with the pressure of being implicated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation in match-fixing.
He has refused to comment on allegations that he took 40,000 US dollars to under-perform in two one-day games in India in 1995.
"I can't afford for any outside thing to influence my game, and I am just looking to focus on my cricket," he said three weeks ago when he arrived in Australia for the start of the five-Test tour.
Lara is now a pale shadow of the man who established two world records in 1994 -- the highest Test score (375 against England in Antigua) and highest first-class total (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham).
He twice threw away his wicket in the first Test to fast bowler Glenn McGrath and, batting No 3, he will also have to face the threat of Brett Lee's thunderbolts in Perth.
Lee is poised to break Jeff Thomson's 160.45km/h (100 mph) record on Perth's super-fast wicket.
"I'm only pleased he's on our team," said wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist who claimed Lee provoked a "genuine fear factor" in the West Indies batsmen.
Thomson set his world record against another West Indies side at Melbourne in 1975.
Mail Cricket Editor
