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The emerging young batsmen in the West Indies team have been set a challenge and a chance over the next six weeks through the forced withdrawal of Brian Lara from the tour of Zimbabwe.

They start today (2:30 a.m. East Caribbean time) with the opening match of the triangular One-Day Coca-Cola Cup that also involves India and Lara himself has charged them to make the most of the opportunity.

We've got a lot of young players wanting to get through and waiting to prove a point,Lara said after announcing his decision to abort the tour to seek rest for a persistent right hamstring injury.

It is an ideal opportunity for them to go ahead and see what they can do,he added.

He identified Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, both 20, and Chris Gayle, 21, as young batsmen he expects to do well on tour. But he was concerned that they are developing too slowly at international level.

They need to speed up the apprentice period they're going through, he said. But we need to see them hold on to international cricket and get on top of it.

It's a mental game so they've got to work a little bit on the mental side to get themselves prepared for it, he added.

The West Indies go into the Coca-Cola Cup tournament not only weakened by Lara's absence but with as dismal an overseas record in the shorter form of the game as in Tests.

The maximum temperature forecast for today is 21 Degrees Celsius, with the minimum six Degrees Celsius.

Their confidence, always fragile, was dealt an early blow by a heavy, embarrassing loss to a composite, aged Country Districts team in a warm-up match here Wednesday.

The thumb injury that has put Zimbabwe's finest batsman, and wicket- keeper, Andy Flower, out of both the One-Day series and the two Tests to follow evens the balance of Lara's loss.

But the Zimbabweans have a definite advantage over the West Indies for whom captain Carl Hooper is the only one with over 100 One-Day Internationals.

The teams have met in nine such matches in the past year in the Caribbean, England and Australia with the West Indies claiming a 5-4 winning ratio and two of those victories were without either Lara or Hooper.

We know a lot about them, Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak said. There are a few new names but we respect them as we would any other international side. We have to be prepared for them as it is always hard work at this level.

West Indies (from): Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Carl Hooper, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Merv Dillon, Cameron Cuffy and Reon King.

© The Barbados Nation