da marjack bet： St
da betcris： Haydn Gill10-Aug-2001St. George’s, Grenada – Brian Lara may be keeping a low profile thesedays, but the champion West Indies batsman made it his business tocome to the Shell Cricket Academy of St George’s University to sharesome inspiring thoughts with the 23 students.Lara’s visit two weeks ago was the highlight of the third phase of theprogramme, academy director Dr Rudi Webster said during the inauguralgraduation ceremony here Wednesday."Brian was brilliant and he showed a side of himself that many peoplehave never seen," Webster told the audience at the Bell Lecture Hallon the True Blue campus."His candour and honesty were striking. He talked about the factorsthat are necessary for success and spoke at length about his triumphsand failures, his strengths and weakness, his mental highs and lows,and his past and his future."Lara, the double world record-holder whose high standards as a giftedleft-handed batsman have fallen off in recent times, agreed to makehimself available to the academy following his early return to theCaribbean from the Zimbabwe tour because of injury."He also spoke about the pressures which superstars face and the needfor a strong support network in the system to help them dealsuccessfully with those pressures," Webster said."I think he was trying to tell us that when those pressures werehitting him such a system was not in place."In an effort to deal with such pressures, the academy conductedsessions in which great emphasis was placed on mental skills training.Webster, a noted sports psychologist who has gained respect in theCaribbean and internationally, was very happy with the results."The confidence of the players improved and their self-image changed,"he said. "Suddenly, players who earlier appeared to be shy and lackingin confidence started to show initiative and surprising qualities ofleadership."The players started to appreciate fully the importance of the mindand body to get the best out of themselves."The graduands were taught several mental techniques to help with goalsetting, motivation, concentration, self-acceptance, self-confidence,patience, and the prevention and management of pressure and anxiety.The graduation ceremony marked the end of the three-month course inwhich the students, whose ages ranged between 18 and 23, were involvedin a wide-ranging programme called The Four Cornerstones of WinningCricket.
