Bridgetown.
The two match test series between the West Indies and Zimbabwe begins at the historic Kensington Oval in Barbados today.
The West Indies who ruled the cricket world from 1980 to 1995 will be looking to maintain their dominance over Zimbabwe, who has never won a test match against the lads from the Caribbean.
A victory for the West Indies would make it five wins in a row following last year's triumphs over New Zealand in the Caribbean and overseas over Bangladesh.
The last time the West Indies won five tests in a row was back in the 80s when they were the undisputed kings of the cricket world. Viv Richard was the captain leading a side filled with stars to comprehensive victories in Australia and England.
They have fallen so far from those peaks that in the last seven years prior to the start of they home series last year, the former kings of world cricket had been victorious in only five tests.
Captain Darren Sammy is confident that his team can beat the visitors but warned against complacency and noted that winning would not be easy.
"We are ready our preparation have been spot on and we believe we will get the upperhand over Zimbabwe. We have been very professional and disciplined in all we have done so far. We will look to continue our winning ways we had in the One Day and T20 series", Sammy told reporters on the eve of the test.
"The guys are comming in from playing four day cricket so everyone should be settled and ready to take on the Zimbabweans. Kemar (Roach) and Marlon (Samuels) did not play in the last round of the Regional 4 Day tournament but they played for the Sagicor High Peformance Centre over the weekend so they got in their preparation as well", he added.
This is a rare chance for the inexperienced Zimbabwe team to play a test series. They have not played a test match since they suffered a massive defeat at the hands of New Zealand in Napier more that a year ago.
Only Ray Price, 37 has played over 20 test and only four of the batsmen have test hundreds to their names. This is Zimbabwe first test series in the West Indies since 2000.
The teams: West Indies Darren Sammy (captain), Chris Galye, Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Tino Best, Shane Shillingford, Veerasammy Permaul and Shannon Gabriel.
Zimbabwe: Brendan Taylor (captain), Tiino Mawoyo, Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Regis Chakabva, Malcolm Waller, Kyle Jarvis, Keegan Meth, Tendal Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Raymond Price and Graeme Cremer.
Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (Australia), Ranmore Martinesz (Sri Lanka). Television Replays Tony Hill (New Zealand). Fourth official Peter Nero (Trinidad). Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand).
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