By NICK GUTHRIE

HE is one of the greatest bowlers the game of cricket has known and Dennis Lillee believes Australia's current fast bowling unit can lead the way to World Cup glory.

Former Australian leading Test wicket-taker Lillee was at Dubbo on Wednesday and conducted a fast bowling clinic at the Dave Martin nets. While he was busy passing on advice to Dubbo's most talented up-and-coming quicks he also took time to speak about the Australian team, which meets India in a massive World Cup semi-final at Sydney on Thursday.

The man who was named in Australia's Team of the Century in 2000 believes the Australian squad is good enough to win the World Cup but said nothing could be taken for granted with India and New Zealand standing in the way.

"I've seen bits and Australia are a very good unit and they should get into the final and probably win it," he said.

"But you can't discount India and before the tournament started I said New Zealand were a dark horse and they've proved to be that."

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The man touted as the mastermind behind Mitchell Johnson's brilliant return in recent years admitted he did not do a whole lot of coaching these days but was still more than happy to walk among a host of young Dubbo bowlers and pass on tips where he could.

With such a big crowd and just one afternoon to spend with them, Lillee said it was more about correcting little things with people's actions, from the top of their run right through to ball release.

"My roots are in the country so it's always good to get out among the young lads in the country and see what they've got because most of them are usually very talented and often just need a little bit of help with technique," he said.

"Sometimes the actions just need a little tweaking and unfortunately not too many understand the mechanics of fast bowling but it's something I've studied for about 40 years so hopefully I do know something and you can change a lad's career very quickly with something small."

Players from the under-10 level right through to youngsters who play in the Whitney Cup were on hand to benefit from Lillee, who collected 355 wickets from 70 Test matches.

While no one has ever had any doubts about his bowling coaching, there was one thing the former tearaway opening bowler was not going to be doing.

"If I am passing on batting tips I feel very sorry for the batsmen," he laughed.

Coaches with the experience and knowledge of Lillee appear rarely in regional areas but he admitted there had been a renewed focus on the country areas form the game's governing bodies in recent years.

Lillee felt it was the best thing for the game that the most talented players from areas like Dubbo could now go on and make the move to places like Sydney in order to follow their dream.

"Increasingly over the years the country has been a lot more important for state cricket because they've realised now a young lad from the country can go to the city and get a job or go to university while in the old days it was just too large a step," he said.

"Now it's not so big and we're getting more kids from the country go to Sydney and make the grade."