London, June 13:

West Indies legend Brian Lara has hinted at a return to cricket only months after announcing his retirement from the international game. Lara announced his West Indies retirement following his country’s failure to qualify for the semi-finals at the World Cup in the Caribbean.

He had planned only to retire from one-day internationals at the end of the tournament but was expected to be part of the ongoing tour of England. According to The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Lara wants to return to the game, although it remains unclear for who, and at what level, he intends to play.

“I think I am going to play cricket again. If I go six or eight months without cricket I would lose it and I don’t want to lose it yet,” said Lara. Asked if that meant paying for celebrity team Lashings, he replied “No, no,” leaving County cricket or the proposed new Indian breakaway 20-over league as intriguing possibilities.

Lara expected and hoped to be playing Test in England this summer but claims he left West Indies cricket on his own terms, when he retired so suddenly after the World Cup.

“We needed a new direction, someone who was willing to see some sort of change” he said. “I was willing to do that. I wanted to come to England but I had also said I wanted to finish with one-dayers. It’s not ideal but then how many things in life are?”

Despite the recent second innings heroics against England at Old Trafford, the decline in West Indies cricket has been laid bare so far this summer. Lara insists that West Indies’ problems run very deep.