Streak - 'We're going out to win every game'

Heath Streak, Zimbabwe's captain, has insisted his side are not in the VB Series to simply make up the numbers. He is aiming to qualify for the finals, despite injury worries over Craig Wishart and Stuart Carlisle.

On their one-day tour of Australia so far, Zimbabwe scraped home by eight runs against Australia A last week, but went down to Western Australia by 70 runs at the weekend, and were comfortably beaten by Australia A today.

Their preparation hasn't been helped by Wishart's knee injury he suffered against WA, and by Carlisle's blow to the thumb while fielding today. However, Streak is still confident Zimbabwe can make an impact. "We haven't come here to be a third playing nation, we've come here to make the finals," he told The Daily Telegraph. "We're going to be all out to win every game."

Streak also had a word to say regarding the Australian team, claiming that they were right to be introducing younger players into an ageing squad. "When you look at the Australian team, you know, they're not the youngest now," Streak said. "Some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth.

"Someone told me that the Australian bowls team is a younger average age than the cricket team. I don't know how true that is, but it's good for them to have a look at the youngsters.

"Obviously they're being looked at and I think it's a wise decision by the Australian selectors to start blooding some of the youngsters. I was very impressed with a lot of the youngsters. Obviously Shaun Tait had a good outing against us and we are very impressed - he's got pace."

Zimbabwe's first game of the VB Series is against Australia on Sunday, January 11, at Sydney. The opening game, between Australia and India, starts on Friday at Melbourne.