Credibility at stake for Aussies, Windies during Caribbean series

Barbados, West Indies: The Test series between West Indies and Australia is seen as a contest between two teams, who are trying to recapture their old glory days, and their credibility is at stake in the Caribbean.

It is for the first time in more than three decades that the Caribbean will host the Frank Worrell Trophy with neither team sitting at the top of the world game. On the contrary, both teams are at various stages of emerging from their downfall. Australian captain Michael Clarke believes everyone expects their team to win home games, but the true trait of a champion team is winning away from home in difficult conditions. “The hardest part of playing international sport is beating teams away from home in conditions you`re not as used to - different environment, different temperature, different culture, completely different cricket wickets,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Clarke, as saying. The Argus report, which was tabled in August last year, had specifically mentioned that winning abroad is vital to Australia’s medium-term aim of regaining the No.1 ranking within four years. However, the Windies haven’t set any such targets, and their team manager Richie Richardson, believes his team would require some patience to bring back its glory days. “If you`re going to build something solid, you`ve got to take your time to build it,” said Richardson. ``We want to get back to the top as soon as possible but you have to be patient. A lot of things have to be in place before that can happen. Who knows? If it happens in two years` time we`ll be very happy, if it happens next year we`ll be very happy, but we know it is a long process,” he added. ANI