Australia’s cricketers have lost their “fear factor” and could be heading towards a West Indies-style decline, batting great Brian Lara has warned. Lara, whose career began when the now struggling West Indies were in the ascendancy in the 1980s, sees some similarities in the trajectory of Steve Smith’s Australia. His comments come after Australia lost their fifth straight Test in an ignominious innings defeat to South Africa in Hobart on Tuesday’s fourth day. “The fear factor is no longer there and a similar thing happened to the West Indies 25 years ago,” Lara told News Corp newspapers. “The morale of the team was pretty low when we started to lose,” said Lara, who is visiting Sydney.

Source: Dhaka Tribune November 16, 2016 18:58 UTC