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The West Indies have just gone through successive series of both Tests and One-Day Internationals against Australia and South Africa, the two strongest, fittest and best prepared teams of the day.

Now, in the phrase of chairman of selectors Mike Findlay, they can look forward to something of a reprieve on forthcoming trips to Zimbabwe and Kenya.

The West Indies' recent record is undeniable proof they can afford to take no team lightly, especially when venturing outside the Caribbean. But Findlay's point is taken in that the pressure will not be nearly as intense as against the cocksure Aussies and the clinically efficient South Africans.

Zimbabwe rate even below the West Indies on the new International Cricket Council Test championship table, issued last week, and are struggling to maintain standards against the background of the political, social and economic problems that have overtaken the country.

Yet there has been little to chose between the teams when they have met over the past 15 months.

The West Indies scraped hard-fought victories in the two Tests in March, 2000, and the count in the eight One-Day Internationals since two in the Caribbean, three in England and three in Australia is even at 4-4.

The Zimbabweans are a close-knit unit who will outstrip the West Indies in at least one certain area, fielding. Their all-round quality in that department is not much below that of their neighbours, South Africa, and compensates for limited bowling that relies heavily on the pace and swing of captain Heath Streak, the only one in their ranks with over 100 wickets in both forms of the game.

Even though they have lost two of their better players, Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson, in the past year, Andy Flower remains as one of the contemporary game's most consistent, yet most underrated, batsmen. He boasts a Test average of 51 that no present West Indian, not even Brian Lara, can match.

And the left-handed Flower has had enough support in the past six months for Zimbabwe to record totals of 422 for nine declared, 383 and 503 for six in India and 340 for six declared in New Zealand.

So they will be no pushovers and, as coach Roger Harper noted last week, the two Tests in July will be a reliable guide to where the West Indies really stand at present. Thrashed in every overseas series since 1997 in Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia, defeat as well in Zimbabwe would leave us firmly at the bottom of the pile.

The Tests and the preceding triangular One-Day series that also involves India will indicate what the players and, just as significantly, Harper himself have learnt from their experiences against Australia and South Africa and, earlier, England last summer.

Harper has identified fitness, tactics and technique as the main areas for attention during the preparatory two-week camp in Trinidad prior to the tour.

As one of the finest fielders of all time, it would be useful if he added that discipline to his list, for it is here that the South Africans really distance themselves from the rest.

All of this means concentrated practice and hard work, not attributes that have been always evident in the West Indies' sessions.

Three years ago, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) introduced a medical, physical and optical testing programme for all players chosen for the West Indies, from under-15 up.

It was devised by a Barbadian, Dr Sam Headley, associate professor in exercise physiology at Springfield College in the United States, and WICB president Pat Rousseau said at the time it would be mandatory.

"If you get selected to a team and we send you to the person who does the testing and you fail, with no time to get ready, you'll be put out of the side and a replacement found," he warned the players.

Within a few months, the players had won their stand-off against the WICB prior to the South African tour, Dennis Waight was advised that his training methods were too onerous and Dr Headley's programme apparently went the way of so much else.

I am reliably informed that fitness tests are still intermittently carried out but that if Rousseau's dictum had been applied, the West Indies would have had to find eight replacements in the South African series.

That is obviously not good enough in a game that demands levels of condition and stamina even more than most others.

For all the disappointment of defeat, there have been some encouraging signs in the past year.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle have all emerged as batsmen of rich promise. With 36 wickets in his last nine Tests, Merv Dillon seems ready to spearhead the attack now that Courtney Walsh has gone.

Cameron Cuffy has finally learnt what can be achieved by control of line and length. Dinanath Ramnarine's leg-spin has brought a new dimension to the bowling.

Zimbabwe offers them all the chance to convert their recent encouraging performances into something more substantial, as it does the West Indies to break the sequence of overseas disasters.

If captain Carl Hooper, Harper, trainer Ronald Rogers and manager Ricky Skerritt are serious, the two weeks the team spends in Trinidad will be critical in having them fit enough in every sense to meet the challenge. They cannot afford to carry along slackers.

© The Barbados Nation