Speaking Sunday, chairman of selectors Sir Viv Richards said commitment to performance by some members of the 16-man squad to tour Zimbabwe later this month would be under very close scrutiny.

“It’s not probation, but we are looking very hard at some individuals, mannerisms, attitudes and, more than anything else, we would like them to commit themselves to scoring runs, all the runs necessary for us to be successful,” Sir Viv told reporters.

The original plan, Sir Viv said, was for one squad to be selected for the Test tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

But at the selection meeting here in Jamaica on Friday night it was agreed that it would be better to name the squad for Zimbabwe only.

“It gives us an opportunity (that if) we have a guy who is not on his best behaviour, it gives us options. We felt that it was something that we need to look into and then we evaluate every individual after that tour,” Richards said.

New fast bowler Ravi Rampaul came in for high praise from Sir Viv who said he and fellow selector Gordon Greenidge were very impressed when they watched Rampaul as he bowled for West Indies Under-19s in Zone B of the Red Stripe Bowl preliminaries.

Captain Brian Lara and the other selector Joey Carew had previously seen the fiery Trinidadian and his selection was unanimous.

“I was lucky enough to have been in Antigua and I saw him bowl to a lot of our past Test match players and present (players). Most times when we saw him, he bowled the sort of stuff that we were looking for: the aggression, and the ability to use his head.

“That came into play a lot. He looks like the sort of individual who is capable of doing the things that he wants to do,” Sir Viv said.

“The way I have seen this guy bowl, he interests me in such a way, that I believe it’s vital that we did pick him. We were totally unanimous in making that selection,” he said.

“It was pace, but you can have pace and still not be intelligent with how you use that pace.

“I certainly felt there were times when he stuck up guys with the short ball. I have had some encounters with fast bowlers in the past and just seeing the way he worked at batsmen, the short balls and then that inswinger in terms of reverse swing and most times when he did it, he was reasonably successful,” added Richards.

Rampaul, who is a shade over six-feet, hails from Preysal and his selection makes him the first genuine fast bowler of Indian descent to make the West Indies side.