Lara says World Cup not over

West Indies captain Brian Lara has blasted the World Cup scheduling, after his side lost their third match in less than six days.

After a successful group stage where the West Indies went through undefeated, the home side have since struggled considerably. They lost their first Super Eight match to Australia by 103 runs and were then defeated by New Zealand by seven wickets. Last night they were thrashed by Sri Lanka by 113 runs.

“It was very tough today,” Lara said after the loss. “But this was our fourth match in 10 days and you could see that some of the guys were really flat in the field.

“A lot of the guys will take a few days off and we will assess the situation. We have to be sure we are fresh for the last three matches.”

Lara insisted his side still had a chance of making the semi-finals.

“I suppose we’ll be watching some cricket games now hoping that certain teams win or defeat another country,” he said.

“We’ve got our last game of this round on the 21st and we might be in a match against England where we’re fighting for the last spot. There is a permutation that allows that.”

“I know everyone’s disappointed in the dressing room and in the Caribbean but we’ve still got a job to do.”

“We’ve got to pick up and fight because you never know what can happen.”

West Indies next match comes against South Africa on April 10th in Grenada where they will need to win to keep their World Cup dream alive.