Former England [Images] cricket captain Nasser Hussain has advised bowlers not to sledge West Indies [Images] great Brian Lara [Images] as the outcome of it could be disastrous.

In an interesting take on on-field verbal volleys, Hussain also singles out former Australian skipper Steve Waugh as the cleverest sledger of them all.

"I was never that fussed by it (sledging). There are degrees -- the fast bowlers tend not to be the brightest and their words tend not to be the kind of thing you'd want to print in a newspaper," the former batsman said in 'Guardian Unlimited'.

"Warney was more clever. He'd tell you about every time he'd ever got you out. Steve Waugh was cleverer still. He'd pick your game to pieces from the gully or slip, telling you what he'd seen on the telly highlights or read in the paper about your technique," he said while replying to a reader's query.

"There are some players we didn't bother with... Brian Lara, for example, you don't sledge because you don't want to wake him up. The Aussies tried it once and he scored 275 against them in Sydney."

Asked about his infamous three-finger protest to Ian Botham and co. in 2002, Hussain said, "I thought at the time I had something to prove and I proved it. I get on pretty well with Beefy now anyway.

"He usually asks me how many times I've won the Ashes and I ask him how many times he beat the West Indies. But I get on well with all of them. I always used the media - if people were having a go I could use it as motivation to prove them wrong. The producer still shows it occasionally and we have a laugh."