Recovering West Indies set to take on rusty Kiwis

Kingston, June 4: The West Indies will seek to continue their nascent cricketing recovery when they take on New Zealand in five one-day internationals and two Test matches, starting with a limited overs game at Kingston's Sabina Park on Wednesday.

West Indies captain Carl Hooper, fresh from a gruelling, two-month home tour against India,

showed faith in the squad that lost a five-match series of one dayers 2-1, but rapped his players for not showing enough application in the deciding match in Triniday on Sunday.

West Indies won the five-match Test series 2-1.

New Zealand have had a tortured build-up to their late-season Caribbean tour, which is expected to be affected by rain. International cricket is rarely played in June, when the rainy season has begun.

New Zealand's tour of Pakistan in May ended dramatically when a bomb exploded outside their team hotel, but they had already suffered a heavy innings defeat in the first Test.

They landed in Jamaica in the middle of 11 days of heavy rain that prevented the team practising outdoors. The team first set foot outdoors on Sunday, when they trained at Sabina Park.

Pugnacious all-rounder Craig McMillan injured his ankle in training and missed Monday's warm-up match against a University of West Indies XI.

New Zealand batted first and were given a thorough examination by the young generation of West Indies bowlers, several of whom will be playing for West Indies A in England this month.

However captain Stephen Fleming scored an elegant 64 and all-rounder Scott Styris made a bid for a place in Wednesday's side with an unbeaten 63 as New Zealand notched up 254 all out in 50 overs.

In reply, New Zealand pace bowler Shane Bond got his first serious run-out since he broke down with an injured foot at the end of the tour to Australia six months ago, when he took on and mastered the best Australian batsmen.

Bond bowled eight overs, taking one for 27, while spinner Daniel Vettori took three for 24 as the University team collapsed to 155 all out.

Bond and New Zealand's other bowlers will have to face a West Indies' batting line up that has a new-found backbone in the middle order.

Although batting legend Brian Lara struggled for form against India, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and skipper Hooper stepped successfully into the breech.

Hooper and Chanderpaul featured in a 296-run partnership in the first Test in Guyana, with the captain scoring an impressive 233. They set an example to youngsters like Ramnaresh Sarwan and Wavell Hinds, who also made valuable scores.

The West Indies also returned to using a four-pronged seam attack. Although it lacked the hostility of former generations of bowlers, Merv Dillon and Cameron Cuffy proved themselves more than worthy of their international place.