Lara the target!

The West Indies cricketers opened their tour of Australia in Perth yesterday already written off, ridiculed and accused by the Australian media of weakness in dealing with match-fixing charges against star batsman Brian Lara.

In his column in the Melbourne Age last weekend, former Australian batsman turned television commentator, David Hookes, predicted 'cricket carnage' with a 5-0 rout in the Test series, echoing the confidence for former captain Kim Hughes and current fast bowler Glenn McGrath.

At the same time, writer Malcolm Conn charged in a report in The Australian that the West Indies are 'in denial over the scandal surrounding Brian Lara'.

Misleadingly claiming that Lara had now been named in 'three matchfixing inquiries across three countries', Conn said the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) could yet not bring itself to hold an inquiry.

'Maybe it is afraid of what it will find,' he wrote. Last week's report by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried an unsubstantiated charge by bookmaker M.K.Gupta that he had paid Lara 'around US$40 000' to underperform in two One-Day matches on the West Indies tour of India in 1994. Lara has categorically denied all charges.

Gupta also implicated Australian batsman Mark Waugh among others but Conn only targeted Lara in his report.

'West Indian cricket is in such a fragile state that, if Lara goes down, a huge chunk of West Indian credibility and appeal will go with him,' Conn added.

Lara was also accused of betting on matches on the 1993 West Indies tour of South Africa in an affavadit filed by an unnamed South African businessman before South Africa's King Commission in June. The charge was later discredited.

Hookes was in no doubt that the West Indies would be trounced in the series of five Tests, predicting Australian victories within three days in the first two Tests.

'After only three days, Australia will have set the record for the most consecutive Test wins and, by summer's end, the Australian Cricket Board and Channel 9 (television) will be praying for a close Test series against England in England next year,' Hookes wrote.

Australia need one victory to equal the West Indies' record of 11 in a row, set in 1984-85 by Clive Lloyd's team.

Hookes, who was in the Australian bating during that sequence, said the present West Indies team comprise 'a strong, athletic group of young men who look as though they could bowl as quickly and menacingly as Joel Garner and Andy Roberts. The reality is that they will run to the crease faster than they bowl,' he said.

'There will be no sympathy from Australian players who battled the might of the men from the Caribbean in past years, but those with a love for the game and a desire for sporting contests will ache for a more competitive summer,' Hookes added.

In a preview of the series, Cricketline, the Internet site, took up the theme.

'Past generations of opening batsmen took guard in Brisbane and Perth and looked at the long run-ups of Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall if not genuniely fearing for their lives, then knowing that only dismissal would alleivate their discomfort,' it recalled.

'But not anymore for the boot is squarely on the other foot,' Cricketline continued. 'Not just because the Australians are the most clinical and professional side in the world today, but also [because] in Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillspie there now possess the most feared pace attack on the planet.'

'Simply, the West Indies are about to receive a dose of their own medicine and Australian fans can't wait for the bloodshed to begin,' it stated.

In an interview in the Times newspaper of London, McGrath said he went into every series against the West Indies believing Australia would win every match.

He felt they would have done in the Caribbean last year 'had not one guy, Brian Lara, played so well'.

Lara hit 213, 153 not out and 100 in successive Tests as the four-Test series ended 2-2.

'They looked very shaky in England and I think they will find it very hard to come back,' McGrath said.

Hughes, who quit in tears as captain after Australia lost five consecutive Tests to the West Indies home and away in 1984-85, has said he would put his house on a 5-0 result.

'Our third team would beat them,' Hughes said earlier this year. 'The top Eleven will murder them.'