Pakistan play two practice matches

Zimbabwe in the one-day match, Pakistan are now well geared to play two practice matches on Saturday and Sunday against a West Indies Select squad.

The matches will be of 50 overs. For Pakistan it will be in readiness for the their first encounter against the West Indies in the Triangular Series on Wednesday.

For the local players it will be a sort of a trial to find a spot in the national side. Pakistan will be however without the services of fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who according to the Pakistan coach, Javed Miandad is still in the process of recovering from his injury which he sustained during the Sharjah Cup.

Moin Khan, the Pakistan captain, and Abdur Razzaq, who flew out on Wednesday to Bangladesh for the ICC one-day game will not be here either. The two and Wasim Akram are scheduled to join the team in St Vincent on Tuesday (April 11).

Miandad says: "Shoaib can not be risked. Even if we had to rest him for the rest of the one-day games we will. Because the Test matches are very important and we will need his services that of a fit Shoaib Akhtar."

Saeed Anwar also not on this tour may join if fit enough prior to the three-match Test series which will get underway from May 5 with the first Test at Georgetown in Guyana. Miandad says that Saqlain Mushtaq is also likely to join the team.

Some of the players also have new look too. Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed and Shoaib Akhtar and the coach himself have had their heads shaven prior to the first match. A sort of gimmick and gamesmanship which they think is meant to have a new image. The team has also in its ranks Shoaib Malik and Irfan Fazil, the medium-pacer.

Miandad is happy with the Pakistan's performance in the opening game. "I have full confidence in my team and they have done well considering the tight schedule and travelling. We are confident that when take on the West Indies we will be even better in overall makeup mentally psychologically."

Pakistan are taking this tour very seriously indeed. On their last tour they performed poorly, losing the series in 1993. The current Pakistan outfit, under Moin Khan is focused to leave a lasting impression and above all a victory in the series for the first time against West Indies in the West Indies.

The West Indies Select XI to play against Pakistan at the weekend is led by Adrian Griffith and have a number of youngsters.