They will have little or no rest as they face up to a determined Zimbabwe outfit at the Queen’s Park Oval in the series opener on Sunday, a one-off Twenty20 International.
West Indies team liaison officer Rangy Nanan said yesterday that the players who toured Australia will arrive tonight while Jamaican Dave Bernard will come in this morning.
Grenadian Andre Fletcher, who left Trinidad Tuesday with the rest of the Windwards team, will fly in today as well.
Grenada has 1.45 pm arrival time and will link up with the local players Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo, as well as Guyanese batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
The West Indies team will have the day off tomorrow before staging their solitary training session at the Queen’s Park Oval on Saturday when they meet with their new coach Ottis Gibson.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe arrived Tuesday night and took in a light training session at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday afternoon.
Manager of the team, Anesu Kasesu, told CMC Sport that his players are ready for the big clash.
“Most of the guys have been in really good form in our T20 series that ended on the weekend and we are looking to push on from there. The boys had two long flights in getting here, so yesterday (Wednesday) it was just a matter of light training and adjusting to the weather conditions.”
Zimbabwe tackle the UWI Vice-Chancellor’s XI in a warm-up match at St Augustine tomorrow.
Kasesu believes the West Indies will be coming back hard after being beaten in Australia.
“You can say they would be coming out as wounded tigers after their loss in Australia. One must put into context their loss to Australia though. They were seriously hampered by injuries with most of their regulars not fit to play.
“Now they have the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul coming back to play and they will be a very difficult side to beat. One cannot say that the West Indies are down and out, they are a dangerous side and will come out hard against us.
“They are also playing at home and this would give them a serious advantage. Any team playing at home is difficult to beat and the West Indies will be no different,” Kasesu said.
