Members of the West Indies team warm up yesterday for their historic day-night one-day international against Zimbabwe in St. Lucia today. - DELLMAR
CASTRIES, St. Lucia (AP):
CAPTAIN BRIAN Lara says the West Indies will continue to experiment against underwhelming Zimbabwe in the seven-match limited overs cricket series, including game five today.
"I think it is a situation of everybody getting a game," said Lara, whose side has a comfortable 3-0 lead. "We still want to make sure we have the right players and we have everybody peaking at the right time."
The 37-year-old Lara, in his third reign as skipper, admitted his eyes were on the bigger challenge presented by India, who arrive in the Caribbean next week for a series of four Tests and five one-dayers.
"We have to take into consideration that Zimbabwe, because of their situation, are not at full strength, and in a matter of a few days we'll be playing one of the top teams in the world," Lara said. "We do have that in the back of our minds and we do know that we have to improve to actually do very well against India."
BEST TEAM
"Definitely against the Indians we wouldn't be trying anything. When you see us take the field out there, barring fitness and injury, it is a situation where you are going to see the best team out there playing."
Lara hinted that the returning Dwayne Bravo and Marlon Samuels will have a greater role in today's historic day/nighter at Beausejour Stadium.
The match will be the first ever floodlit international in the Caribbean, and Lara is keen to see a big crowd come out.
"I hope that this takes off in the Caribbean," he said. "It was disappointing in Antigua (for the first two matches) to see the low turnout over the weekend.
"The guys are looking forward to it. It is historic. It's going to be a wonderful occasion."
Beausejour has hosted seven ODIs since its opening in 2002. The lights, installed this year, were used successfully for two matches between West Indies A and England A in March.
TEAMS:
West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Runako Morton, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Corey Collymore, Dave Mohammed.
Zimbabwe (from): Terrence Duffin (captain), Piet Rinke, Justice Chibhabha, Brendan Taylor, Vusi Sibanda, Elton Chigumbura, Charles Coventry, Blessing Mahwire, Tawanda Mupariwa, Prosper Utseya, Edward Rainsford, Keegan Meth, Anthony Ireland, Ryan Higgins, Keith Dabengwa, Gregory Strydom.
