BRIDGETOWN, April 8: West Indies legends Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Everton Weekes threw their support behind under-fire skipper Brian Lara on Sunday as the hosts faced up to a make-or-break World Cup week.

A legion of former players including Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft all believe that Lara should step down as captain after the West Indies lost all three of their Super Eight matches.

West Indies must now win their next three matches against South Africa in Grenada on Tuesday and Bangladesh (April 19) and England (April 21) in Barbados to have any hope of making the semi-finals.

“There have always been criticisms about Lara. I don't know what people expect of him. I don't know if the people expect him to hold their (the players) hands and to take them away and make them perform,” Sobers told the CMC network.

“Lara, in my estimation, is still the most knowledgeable person in West Indies cricket. And Lara knows his cricket.

“He may look like a supremo as people may try to say but whenever you look around West Indies and West Indies cricket, if you could find a man that you think is better than Lara, fair enough.

“But I don't think there is a person who has that same knowledge and that same ability as Brian Lara.”

Weekes also defended Lara.

“All of the great captains had great teams. Lara has not got a great team and I wouldn't go as far as saying that he should be fired,” said the batting legend.

“Lara is still the best batsman in the side. He might not be the best captain and he is not the best captain because he hasn't got a good team.

“When you go back to all of the winning captains, you'll see that they've had very good players and great players. Unfortunately for Lara, he hasn't got any of those in his side.

“The bowling is very average, he has got a couple of good batsmen with him and that's it.

“But I think people can be a bit unfair sometimes in comparing players and teams and that sort of thing but I wouldn't be that drastic to have them all removed. I think in the heat of things people say things that sometimes they are very sorry about.”—AFP