(Member of 1983 World Cup winning team)

Celebration was followed by anguish. A victory on the field was only a minor gain for the West Indies as it learnt that one of its most gifted and trusted performers, Brian Lara, had made up his mind to say good bye to this wonderful game.

It was a huge loss, not just for West Indies, but world cricket too. I have always believed that retirement is a personal decision and no one knows when to call it quits better than the individual.

The timing matters a lot and in Lara's case one always thought he could have gone on for a couple of years more in Test cricket, given the state of West Indies cricket and his own ability to carry a team on his shoulders.

Retirement can also be a very difficult decision. I have known from experience how the heart bleeds when you stop doing what you love the most but then at some point we all have to accept that no sportsman can go on forever.

You can continue your association later as an administrator or a coach or a commentator but you can't keep playing all your life.

The huge win over Bangladesh must have come as a relief to a team that was expected to win the World Cup because of home conditions but then West Indies lost their way following some inconsistency in all the departments.

And now they have lost one of the most charming entertainers the game has known. To me, Lara was an embodiment of a match-winner who knew how to deliver on the big stage. I have not known any batsman in modern era so dominating and so merciless when it came to tackling the bowlers.

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