As with most partings and farewells, there is more than a tinge of sadness in the announcement by Brian Lara that he will end his cricket career at the end of today's match between the West Indies and England in the Super Eight stage of the Cricket World Cup.

This game, in the context of the tournament, is only of academic value. Both teams have already been eliminated from the semi-final round of the World Cup after their poor performances in the Super Eights.

But in an emotional sense, there is great poignancy to this match. It marks the last time that the taciturn Duncan Fletcher will be in charge of England, having stepped down after his team's recent Ashes debacle in Australia and their failures in the Caribbean.

And then there is Lara's departure.

There is no gainsaying that Brian Charles Lara is a great cricketer, whose batting for the West Indies has been majestic. He has scored near 12,000 runs in Tests and over 10,000 in one-day internationals. He has twice held the record for the most runs in a Test innings (375 and 400 not out) and has the highest score (501 not out) in a first class innings. He seven times scored double centuries in Tests.

Those statistics by themselves speak of Lara's genius and the joy that he brought to cricket fans: of the exaggeratedly high backlift launching into elegant and majestic drives; of his almost single-handed rescuing of his team in dire situations - against Australia in 1998/99 with scores of 213, 153 and 100.

Indeed, these are cherished memories that will morph into legend, and there will be debates over where Brian Lara ranks in the pantheon of all-time great batsmen. He, for us, will be in the top three or four.

But for all his genius as a batsman, Brian Lara has made the right decision. It is time for him to go, when he still has some control over the terms of his departure.

Unfortunately, Lara's genius with the bat did not translate into his captaincy, either on or off the field. Lara inherited a team that was in decline, but, wilful and self-absorbed, he lacked the skill to mould the replacement into a disciplined, coherent unit.

In his inability to find the formula for leadership and success, and as the West Indies lunged from crisis to crisis, Lara resorted to peeve, blame and quarrel, as in his recent spat with Andy Roberts over responsibility for team selection.

In periods of crisis, it is not often that the existing leader can engineer renewal. This is one such case.

The transition to better seasons, however, has many stalwarts and legends to remember. Brian Charles Lara joins these giants of Caribbean sporting achievement.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.