Brian Lara believes new West Indies captain Darren Sammy will face a baptism of fire when he leads the team on a three-Test tour in Sri Lanka next month.

Chris Gayle was removed as captain and replaced by 26-year-old Sammy on Tuesday in an effort to shake up and reinvigorate the struggling team.

Lara knows only too well how tough skippering the Windies can be having led them from 1998 to '99.

And he believes Sammy, who has been more successful in the shorter version of the game, has an uphill battle to reverse the team's flagging fortunes.

"It's a very big job but I know Sammy's a very committed individual," Lara said. "I also know the West Indies captaincy is a different story and a very tough job. You need to be a leader on and off the pitch. He's certainly going to be tested in that position.

"It's not an easy role and I've seen the likes of Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh and Jimmy Adams do the job and not all of them have been successful."

Lara is unsure whether Sammy is the right man for the captaincy and believes there is an absence of leaders in West Indies cricket, both on and off the field.

"It's hard for me to say (about Sammy) because I've not been around for three years and I don't know what the chemistry is like in the squad," he said. "A chemistry of a team is very important. You can have guys who are not top performers being great leaders. You can have guys who are top performers who are bad leaders, so it's hard for me to say from the outside.

"I just hope we start to move in the right direction. We've been sliding in the wrong direction for more than a decade. I'd love to see us turn the corner but at the moment I don't see any leaders.

"Our problems are deep-rooted and not just out on the cricket field. Administratively, things are not going well and I don't think there's any plan in place for us to dig ourselves out of the hole we're in."

Sammy has earned 43 one-day international and 19 Twenty20 international caps, but has only played eight Tests. Batsman Brendon Nash has been named as the team's vice-captain.

Opening batsman Gayle, who was named captain in 2007, has been included in the squad to play Sri Lanka.