Windies on verge of something fantastic: Lara

Brian Lara's West Indies team face an unprecedented home whitewash at the hands of Australia but their captain said on Thursday he thought they were on the verge of "something fantastic".

Speaking ahead of Friday's start to the fourth and final Test, Lara dodged questions about his health, praised his team and predicted a brave new world for West Indies cricket.

"This is the beginning of something," said Lara, whose team crashed to two nine-wicket defeats and a 118-run loss to Australia and lost three consecutive home Tests for the first time in their history.

"We have got our chance to begin something fantastic here and carry it on through the rest of the year.

"I have always said we have to set a standard. A lot of people would

not be expecting us to perform at this level. I'm happy with the standard we have set. We want to take Australia as far down the road as possible."

Lara baffled the cricketing world in the third Test when he won the toss but put Australia into bat on a docile pitch. The Australians accepted the gift and scored a match-winning 605 for nine in the first innings.

Lara has yet to give any details of the mysterious illness which struck him down during the third Test in Bridgetown and reduced him to batting at number eight and number five in the two innings.

Asked about his condition by former fast bowler and official presenter Ian Bishop at the end-of-match ceremony, Lara said he could not comment without speaking to his doctor.

Shortly afterwards at the post-match media conference, Lara said he had a "medical situation".