Crick­et Leg­end, bat­ting su­per­star, Bri­an Charles Lara, 54, has bro­ken his si­lence on the crime up­surge in the coun­try, most­ly in the San­ta Cruz area.

Over the past few months there have been sev­er­al killings in the San­ta Cruz area, in­clud­ing a triple mur­der just last week. One of the vic­tims, Lara, iden­ti­fied as his child­hood friend.

In a state­ment on Sun­day he said, “I was in com­plete shock and dis­may af­ter watch­ing video footage in which a child­hood friend got killed whilst sit­ting watch­ing bas­ket­ball at a lo­cal bar in Can­taro, the once sleepy vil­lage I grew up in. There is more to the video I rather not men­tion, but it pains me to see what was once the most beau­ti­ful vil­lage with co­coa and or­ange es­tates lin­ing its out­skirts, crum­ble un­der the bur­den of crime and re­lent­less vi­o­lence,” Lara said.

“Like every kid back in the day, I helped my­self to all the hang­ing fruits avail­able, ig­nor­ing “No Tres­pass­ing” signs to the detri­ment of my butt when­ev­er my dad found out, but that was as far as it got,” he added.

Lara spoke of how feuds were set­tled years ago with­out the gun vi­o­lence. “Feuds with­in the vil­lage or with oth­er neigh­bour­ing vil­lages were set­tled on the field of play, the on­ly bat­tles I knew about.”

He added that in his days, the three Williams broth­ers were no­to­ri­ous and feared in the vil­lage, but the rest of them fo­cused on sport and dis­closed that their role mod­els were all sports per­son­al­i­ties.

“We were in awe of all the greats rep­re­sent­ing us on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage, like Sir Viv Richards, Sir Gor­don Greenidge, Claude Noel, Hase­ly Craw­ford. Cul­ture and beau­ty were al­so cre­at­ing waves, the likes of the late Bob Mar­ley, Spar­row, the late Kitch­en­er and, of course, our beau­ti­ful Pen­ny Com­mis­sion,” Lara said.

“Grow­ing up was fun, most of the pos­i­tive news we got via tran­sis­tor ra­dios stuck to our ears as one of our peo­ple from the At­lantic Arch­i­pel­ago achieved great­ness. I nev­er for­got my moth­er cook­ing a pot of pelau and my dad pack­ing all of us in his white Bel­mont car des­tined for the air­port to wit­ness the re­turn of our gold medal­ist Hase­ly Craw­ford. That day stuck with me and I dreamt of the same re­cep­tion one day for my­self. It was an emo­tion­al day watch­ing one man cel­e­brat­ed as he put our small coun­try on the map just by fol­low­ing the dream he had as a kid,” Lara said.

Ly­ing in his room in Jaipur, In­dia and search­ing for an­swers and so­lu­tions for his team Sun­ris­ers Hy­der­abad in the IPL, Lara con­fessed that deep down he is hurt­ing as he sees his coun­try slow­ly turn­ing in­to a place that’s un­safe for all Trin­bag­o­ni­ans.

“Trinidad, like many oth­er coun­tries, faces chal­lenges with youth in­volve­ment in crime,” Lara said.

He added that the is­sue of youth crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go has been a con­cern for many years and is dri­ven by a range of com­plex so­cial, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al fac­tors. One of which he be­lieves the con­tribut­ing fac­tor to be is fi­nan­cial wor­ries, which he said af­fect many young peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Young peo­ple from low-in­come fam­i­lies may feel pres­sure to en­gage in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties to earn mon­ey or sup­port their fam­i­lies. This in­vari­ably leads to in­volve­ment in drug traf­fick­ing, gang ac­tiv­i­ty, and oth­er crim­i­nal be­hav­iours,” Lara said.

“Yes, I un­der­stand, but still I look back with a vivid mem­o­ry of my first in­dul­gence, steal­ing co­coa and or­anges and quiver at the con­se­quences if I was found out. I had such big dreams that these small mis­de­meanours were quick­ly brushed aside be­cause of my stead­fast fo­cus on my com­mit­ment to be­come some­one my vil­lage and coun­try would be proud of…the next Hase­ly Craw­ford of crick­et,” Lara said.

“An­oth­er fac­tor is the break­down of fam­i­ly struc­tures, which can lead to a lack of guid­ance and su­per­vi­sion for young peo­ple. The ab­sence of parental fig­ures or pos­i­tive role mod­els can leave young peo­ple vul­ner­a­ble to neg­a­tive in­flu­ences and peer pres­sure, which can lead to crim­i­nal be­hav­iour. I was blessed with two won­der­ful par­ents, Pearl and Bun­ty, who kept all eleven of us in line and mo­ti­vat­ed to make some­thing of our lives. I don’t think there is a par­ent that wants a life of crime for their kids but if you don’t pay at­ten­tion to your off­spring, some­one will hap­pi­ly do so for you,” he added.

Lara al­so fear­less­ly touched on the avail­abil­i­ty of il­le­gal firearms, as al­so a ma­jor con­trib­u­tor to youth crime in Trinidad and To­ba­go, “Guns are of­ten used in gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty, and the pos­ses­sion of firearms has be­come a sym­bol of pow­er and sta­tus among some young peo­ple.” He al­so men­tioned the lack of ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion and em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for many young peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go, which he be­lieves can leave them feel­ing mar­gin­alised and frus­trat­ed.

“With­out the skills and re­sources nec­es­sary to suc­ceed, some young peo­ple will turn to crime as a means of sur­vival,” Lara said.

Go­ing back to the vi­o­lent crimes in the San­ta Cruz area, Lara de­scribed it as “heart­break­ing to hear about the cur­rent state of my vil­lage and coun­try, es­pe­cial­ly with the in­crease in youth in­volve­ment in crime.”

He em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of un­der­stand­ing the root caus­es of the is­sue and ad­dress them through com­pre­hen­sive strate­gies that pro­vide ed­u­ca­tion and em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties, pro­mote pos­i­tive role mod­els and men­tor­ship pro­grammes, and im­prove ac­cess to so­cial ser­vices and men­tal health re­sources.

Lara al­so said the val­ue of sports should not be ig­nored, “as it can pro­vide a pos­i­tive out­let for young peo­ple and help keep them away from neg­a­tive in­flu­ences.”

“En­cour­ag­ing and in­vest­ing in sports pro­grammes can help chan­nel the en­er­gy and pas­sion of young peo­ple in­to some­thing pos­i­tive, while al­so pro­vid­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for per­son­al growth and de­vel­op­ment. It’s im­por­tant for all mem­bers of so­ci­ety to come to­geth­er to ad­dress this is­sue and work to­wards cre­at­ing a safer and more pros­per­ous fu­ture for Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Lara said.