Windies' cricket could be 10 years from the top: Sobers

BRISBANE - It could take the West Indies another decade to become the dominant force in world cricket again, Sir Garfield Sobers said today. The great West Indies allrounder arrived in Australia today predicting Australia would beat the Windies in the five-Test series starting this week, but not as badly as many thought.

Sir Garfield is here for celebrations to commemorate the famous 1960 tied Test, coinciding with the first Test at the Gabba.

He said the 1960 West Indies team had also come to Australia as an underdog but had more potential than the current team.

"This team was beaten in England so badly ... I don't think they will beat Australia but they won't be beaten as badly as some expect them to," Sir Garfield said.

He had no doubt West Indies cricket would rise again.

"They will have to work very hard and it might take us another 10 years to rebuild but I'm sure we'll get there again," he said.

"There have been a lot of players who have left the scene over the past seven or eight years. But everything goes in cycles and in the Caribbean we have players that are coming on."

Sir Garfield arrived with former opening batsman Rohan Kanhai for the 40-year anniversary celebrations for the tied Test at the Brisbane Cricket Ground which Sir Donald Bradman has described as: "The greatest and most exciting Test of all time."

Sobers, who made 132 in the West Indies first innings of that match, said: "It was the greatest Test series the West Indies ever played in. "And the tied Test was absolutely the best way any series could have started.

"We had two great captains in the late Sir Frank Worrell and Richie Benaud and they made a very good series out of it.

"As long as you live you will always remember that tied Test." Kanhai said the 1960 series gave cricket a shot in the arm and had provided lifelong treasures for the participants.

"The friendships are something we cherish all our lives," he said.

Sir Garfield said he rarely watched cricket now and acknowledged he found it hard to compare one era with another.

"I was never really a watcher. I was always a participant," he said. He declined to comment on the betting controversies now engulfing the game and advised star batsman Brian Lara to put it out of his mind. Lara was one of several international players named in unsubstantiated allegations in the recent Indian police report into match fixing by Indian bookmakers.

"Lara just needs a few things cleared up to get his mind clear. Whatever has been said, he's not involved. He should just forget about it and do what ever he has to do," Sobers said.