October 18 Friday 2002
England will be tough in Ashes: Sobers

SYDNEY: Former West Indies captain Garfield Sobers believes England will give Australia a sterner test than most people expect in the Ashes series starting next month.

But the world record-breaking all-rounder stopped short of predicting that Nasser Hussain's team would beat the world champions, saying the best they could hope for was to give the Australians a real contest. "Don't be too surprised if they really give the Australians a bit of a fight," Sobers told the National Press Club on Thursday. 

England this year will give Australia problems, (but) I'm not saying they'll win." Sobers, 66, said he had been impressed by England's batsmen during the recent northern hemisphere summer, saying they were playing more confidently and aggressively. "I have watched them in England and I think they are a different team," he said. "To 
me, they now seem to put bat to ball, instead of putting pad to ball. I think that is a great improvement."

Sobers, in Australia to promote his latest book, also forecast a rapid improvement in the fortunes of Caribbean cricket. The West Indies dominated world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s but have slipped down the pecking order in the past decade. "The West Indies cricket team has a lot of players that have a lot of ability. It just needs to be brought out," Sobers said. "I think that in two or three years you will see a very, very strong West Indies team again."