Warm-ups a 'Wake-up Call'

There seemed to be relevant symbolism as the West Indies players watched the eclipse of the sun that briefly shrouded Harare in eerie, early afternoon twilight yesterday.

The brilliance that was once West Indies cricket has been obscured in shadow for too long, yet indications from this team's first two matches in Zimbabwe do not suggest that the light will suddenly burst through over the next six weeks.

Meant to be relaxed warm-ups for the triangular One-Day series for the Coca-Cola Cup and the two Tests to follow, they have been quite the opposite.

The West Indies just scraped home in the first on Sunday, against a team comprised mostly of promising youngsters from the Academy.

They were soundly beaten in the second on Wednesday, by seven wickets and by basically a group of retired veterans cricket as opposed to war none of whom is likely to represent Zimbabwe in the coming Internationals and Tests.

The 38-year-old Eddo Brandes, the well-known chicken farmer who embarrassed several international batsmen during his heyday, and Gus Mackay, 31, undermined the West Indies by sending back the first four batsmen, including Brian Lara, for 29 from which there was no meaningful recovery.

Andy Waller, now 41 and with a mere two Tests to his name, then belted a six and 14 fours in 124 from 152 balls, putting on 202 for the first wicket with Gavin Rennie.

It gave Zimbabwe's daily newspapers, the Herald and the Daily News, early opportunity to use the verb that has become so common in describing West Indian adventures across the globe. The visitors were, both agreed, humiliated.

Coach Roger Harper understandably didn't go that far. In his 15 months in the post he has become well-acquainted with such situations but this is not to say he is unruffled by them.

"It was very disappointing," he said. "We didn't bat very well as our batsmen didn't seem to appreciate the ball was holding up a bit early on, and I don't think we bowled as well as we could, although the wicket had become much easier for batting as the day went on."

But, as he has had to do time and again, Harper put a positive spin on it.

"His could be a sort of wake-up call, if we needed one, to make us a bit more focused," he said.

The team had been in Harare for eight days, had practised and trained hard and had got accustomed to the high altitude of Zimbabwe's capital city.

"Now it's a matter of handling ourselves out on the field," Harper noted.

The tour - the first by any West Indies team since the "A" team, under Brian Lara, came in 1989 two years before Zimbabwe gained Tests status - gets under way in earnest tomorrow with the first match of the triangular series against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club.

Corey Collymore, slowly recovering from food poisioning that has prevented him playing a match so far, is the only one who won't be considered as everyone else is fit.

The Zimbabwean casualty is far more significant. Andy Flower, the mainstay of Zimbabwe's batting and their keeper, has been ruled out for not only the One-Day Internationals but the Tests as well by tendon damage in his left index finger, sustained while keeping wicket during the outstanding Test victory over India last week.