MELBOURNE, Australia,  CMC – Brian Lara expects West Indies to be swept, when they visit Australia later this year for three Tests against the former World No.1 side.

The West Indies batting legend believes the stain of the contractual dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players’ Association which led to a players’ boycott may be too hard to erase.

‘”I fear West Indies could be in for a bit of a hiding,” Lara said in the Melbourne Age newspaper.

“I think one of the handicaps will be that they haven’t played together for a long time, due to the dispute with the board.

“That coupled with Australia coming off an Ashes defeat, with a captain who is under some pressure; they [Australia] will be trying to get their team back on track.”

Lara added: “I fear West Indies will feel a backlash. . . [But] we do have match-winners with the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Chris Gayle on his day.

“But I will just be happy if we play good cricket, and play cricket over five days, and not throw in the towel.”

Lara is in Melbourne for a month-long promotional tour for Angostura Bitters, and felt a full-strength West Indies side would make the trip to Australia. But the World record-breaking batsman feels that there may still be some rumblings which may surface at a later date, and feels this could lead to an exodus of leading players.

“Definitely, the West Indies players are more vulnerable to becoming freelance players because of the strained relationship that has been going on with the board for so long,” he said.

“No player wants to be in the situation where they compromise their marketability. You do understand their position.

He continued: “Unless the WICB takes a strong pro-player stance, where the players are going to be happy under the contractual arrangements that they have, you are going to have this situation where the players are going to be second-guessing what is the best thing to be doing for themselves.

“Both parties need to come to terms. There are contracts flying all over the place in India, England and Australia. But I hope the maroon cap is still what everyone is thinking about. . .The tour hasn’t started yet and you don’t know what might pop up at any time.”

West Indies face Australia in three Tests at the Gabba in Brisbane (November 26 to 30), Adelaide Oval in Adelaide (December 4 to 8), and the WACA in Perth (December 16 to 20).