THE perennial shortage of adequate spin bowlers in West Indies cricket was accentuated yesterday when Omari Banks was scratched from the first of the two Tests against Zimbabwe, starting at the Harare Sports Club today, because of a stomach virus.

Instead, the same four fast bowlers joined him in the attack that carried the West Indies to victory over Sri Lanka in their last Test at Sabina Park in June - Corey Colly-more, Vasbert Drakes and the two raw youngsters, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor - will get no spin support. They won’t even have Marlon Samuels’ casual off-breaks that were used as the main spin as recently as the second Test against Australia at the Queen’s Park Oval last April, in a selection bizarre even by West Indian standards.

Daren Ganga has been preferred to bat at No.6. Both scored hundreds in the three-way warm-up match against Zimbabwe ‘A’ that ended on Sunday, but the issue was likely to have been settled in favour of Ganga’s steadiness over the more talented Samuels’ infuriating record of laxity. Banks’ illness surfaced on the eve of the match against Zimbabwe ‘A’, causing his late-minute withdrawal, and he remained too weak yesterday to be considered. Dillon also pulled out of that fixture, citing a sore bowling shoulder but manager Ricky Skerritt reported yesterday that it had fully recovered.

Certainly the team’s leading wicket-taker practised enthusiastically yesterday. But, with Drakes and young Taylor doing the damage with 14 wickets between them against Zimbabwe ‘A’, Collymore with 11 wickets in the last two Tests against Sri Lanka and Edwards with five on debut, Dillon’s experience was not enough to gain him his place. Banks’ absence could be regretted on a nearly white pitch that has rolled rock hard and will be susceptible to deterioration under the 30 degree sunshine and after weeks of dry weather. Bravely identified for his promise and his character and picked for the tough home series against Australia and Sri Lanka last season, the tall, 21-year-old Anguillan immediately had an all-round impact. His batting, solid and upright, made more of an impression than his off-spin bowling whose runs-to-wickets ratio was similar to the present runaway exchange rate of the Zimbabwe dollar. But he confirmed his ability to learn quickly how to cope with the challenges from the best at the highest level. He would have relished the relief of having a go at opponents shorn of their best players by politics, economics and injury, without anyone with a batting average better than 30 and including opener Vusi Sibanda and Stuart Matsi-kenyeri, two emerging, black 20-year-olds on debut. The general perception that the West Indies start, to use one of sport’s most overused and dangerous cliches, as “overwhelming favourites” places the series into true perspective. Their record on foreign fields over the past six years is such that it would have saved their public countless days of suffering had the players’ passports been confiscated for the duration. But, as abysmal as 25 defeats against five wins and a draw might read, they stand above both - but only - Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the International Cricket Council (ICC) table on merit. Indeed, they are the only teams over which they have won away series of late, Zimbabwe here two years ago and Bangladesh there last December. Apart from that, their most recent performances against untouchable Australia and Sri Lanka, albeit in the familiar environs of the Caribbean, the emergence of a group of promising and enthusiastic young players and, not least, the transformation of resurrected captain Brian Lara are optimistic hints for the future. The series breaks new ground for Lara as he has missed all four previous Tests between the teams. In 2000 in the Caribbean, he was taking his break for the game after relinquishing the captaincy. He had to return from Zimbabwe before the series a year later with a hamstring problem. It is an opportunity, if not to regain the Test record score Matthew Hayden took from him against the same opposition last month, then to find the form that, given the evidence of a few club matches in Barbados and the Red Stripe Bowl, appeared to have deserted him since his prolific home series last season. More than that, it is a chance for his young team to make further progress prior to the clearly more daunting challenge of South Africa in December and January.

Even though they would be been toughened by their two battling, but losing, Tests in Australia, Zimbabwe are so below strength, anything less than a convincing performance would be a setback.

Andy Flower and Murray Goodwin, their two only world-class batsmen, are in self-imposed exile amassing runs for English counties and Australian states. Fast bowler Henry Olonga is a candidate for political asylum for daring to speak out against conditions in his homeland and injuries have ruled out Grant Flower, a veteran of 65 Tests (broken right thumb), and two of their brightest young prospects, all-rounder Shaun Ervine (knee) and Douglas Hondo (thigh). If the West Indies falter in such circumstances it would be a clear and immediate setback to the gains made last season in the Caribbean. Teams: West Indies (batting order): Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Daren Ganga, Ridley Jacobs, Vasbert Drakes, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards and Corey Collymore.

Zimbabwe (batting order): Trevor Gripper, Vusi Sibanda, Mark Vermeulen, Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, Tatenda Taibu, Heath Streak (captain), Andy Blignaut, Ray Price, Blessing Mahwire.

Umpires” Billy Bowden (New Zealand), Simon Taufel (Australia).

Match referee: Gundappa Vishwanath (India).