BRIDGETOWN — Brian Lara has insisted he will not resign as West Indies captain despite their Test series defeat by England -- and he has received a vote of confidence from Chairman of the Selectors Vivian Richards and former great Sir Garfield Sobers. Lara has come under renewed pressure as England raced to a 3-0 lead on the four-Test tour of the Caribbean. "I have another Test match to focus on so the time for assessing my position of captain is not now. "Assessment time will come but I am here to play for West Indies and I will be doing that for some time to come," said Lara. He stepped down as West Indies skipper four years ago after a whitewash in New Zealand but began a second spell in charge after last year's World Cup. Since then, they have suffered series losses to Australia, South Africa and England. The 34-year-old has also lost form with the bat, scoring only 100 runs in the three Tests against England so far but he believes other batsmen need to do more as well. Both Richards and Sobers batted for Lara on the weekend. “It’s important that he continues to show his resilience and the faith that maybe people had put in him to lead this team to the very end,” Sir Vivian Richards said in an interview on Voice of Barbados Radio. “It’s so easy to run away from responsibilities, but I would like to think that he is man enough, and just judging from the way he would have performed over the years, he can accomplish that,” Sir Vivian added. Sir Viv, a legendary West Indies batsman, who as captain inflicted emphatic wins over the English during the 1980s — 5-0 in 1986 and 4-0 in 1988, said this is a very difficult period for Lara. “He has shown lots of interest in my view to be wanting to move forward and progress, (but) it hasn’t quite worked out because of the results that we would have seen. “This particular series itself would have been very devastating for the young man,” Sir Vivian said. Suggesting he could not speak for Lara, Sir Vivian said it is clear that the former world record holder is ‘down’ at the moment but is showing signs of facing the challenge bravely. “I think he should be down at this particular point, but hearing some of the excerpts from the (Lara’s) interview yesterday, he is thinking about moving forward, this is the way great men do things,” Sir Vivian said. Sobers believes Lara should not be replaced. “Who do you have to replace him? There are some players in the team but they have not reached the standard yet that they can replace Brian Lara,” he said. “If Brian Lara is in the team I don't see how you can replace him.” “What is happening is difficult to understand,” said Sobers. “Coming back from South Africa, where they did so well with the bat, and not seeing the England bowlers they probably underestimated them.” “They have a lot of ability, they are a very good team,” Sobers stressed. “Any team that can score over 300 every time is not bad.” The West Indies selectors were meeting Sunday to pick a squad for the fourth and final Test match starting at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) on Saturday. SOURCE: CARIBUPDATE.COM