London: West Indian batting great Vivian Richards has said that England could call themselves world-beaters only when they win a series in the subcontinent.
Richards said that beating India and Pakistan in their own soil is the hardest task in cricket and England's ego since winning the Ashes last year has been dented by the series loss in Pakistan and the defeat in second Test against India in Mohali.
"It's all well and good winning a series at home against the best in the world as they did in the Ashes. But you only become great when the odds are really stacked against you and you come out on top," Richards was qouted in BBC Sport on Thursday.
"As it stands, England have gone backwards quite a bit since the summer."
Richards warned England had no right to call themselves a great team until they beat both Pakistan and India away from home.
"I remember India and Pakistan were really hard places to tour -- the hardest in the game in fact," he said.
"It's not just that their teams are so hard to beat. The conditions are tough and generally most of the team are ill. When you overcome that -- what I like to call beating a bad dog in his backyard -- only then do you become real world-beaters," he said.
He however had words of praise for Andrew Flintoff.
"I've been watching Freddie on TV and he sounds really pumped up," he said. "It's a really tough ask to win but I wouldn't put anything past him. He's a really magnificent player and, at times, it's like a mirror of Ian Botham. I always felt Freddie had really underachieved but now he's superb in every game. He's the aggressive player England have missed for so many years."
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