Lara’s comments follow Australia’s Test series loss to South Africa in Hobart which marked its fifth loss in a row.

The West Indies great, who routinely terrorised Australian teams during his stunning career, said the nation's aura of confidence had dissipated.

“Nobody’s scared of them anymore, I think that’s understood,” Lara to Fox Sports.

 “You can’t take anything away from the South Africans because they are playing very, very good cricket; they most likely would beat any cricket team in the world right now.

“Australia’s got to pick up the pieces, head to Adelaide and see if they can salvage some pride.”

Lara said he was surprised at the decline of Australian cricket considering the vast resources at its disposal.

“I think it’s shocking for me because I thought the infrastructure here’s great and one of the problems in the West Indies is that there’s no infrastructure, there’s no money,” he said.

“I thought that the Australians had everything going.

 “The Australians are struggling a bit at the cricket but I think most importantly that they don’t press the panic button.